President Donald Trump is expected to sign a memorandum Friday that opens the door to levies in response to digital services taxes some countries impose on U.S. tech giants, people familiar with the plans said, the latest step to expand a tariff war aimed at addressing imbalances in global trade.
The memo, which the people familiar discussed on condition of anonymity before it is made public, focuses broadly on digital trade issues. Friday's action directs the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative to develop remedies for the taxes that foreign governments impose on U.S. tech companies such as Alphabet Inc. and Meta Platforms Inc., the people said.
The memo is not expected to implement tariffs immediately and it does not set a timeline for when such duties might take effect, according to the people familiar.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The move addresses an issue that has long been a concern for Trump — dating back to his first stint in the White House. In 2019, the USTR initiated separate probes into the tax systems for France, Italy, Spain, India and other countries, with the U.S. concluding at the time that the taxes were discriminatory and disproportionately hurt American firms.
Some nations have since withdrawn their digital services tax plans and instead joined a global negotiation for a minimum tax on tech companies — but those talks have stalled repeatedly.
According to the Computer and Communications Industry Association, approximately
Trump's action comes ahead of a visit from French President Emmanuel Macron, whose country has a digital tax that hits major U.S. tech multinationals, and whose finance minister said earlier this month they intended to keep in place.
France was one of the first countries to implement a digital services tax. The two sides negotiated a truce, under which France would have withdrawn the tax after global rules on taxing digital multinationals came into effect. Those negotiations, however, never concluded.
U.S. retaliation over digital taxes threatens to roil already tense relations with France and other European countries already at odds with Washington over Trump's push to negotiate an end to the war in Ukraine directly with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Trump and his allies have railed against what he sees as unfair practices from Europe over trade, taxation and efforts to counter mis- or dis-information on social media that he says target U.S. tech companies. More broadly, Trump's plans highlight how in his second term he has sought to employ tariffs to reshape global trade ties and force companies to move production to the U.S.
The president has already imposed a blanket 10% tax on imports from China, ordered — and then paused — 25% tariffs on goods from Canada and Mexico, unveiled plans for a 25% levy on U.S. imports of steel and aluminum and directed his administration to propose a round of reciprocal tariffs for each trading partner. He's also said tariffs on automobiles, semiconductors and drug imports are forthcoming.
Trump's second term has seen Silicon Valley executives seek to woo the new president, with the prominent CEOs of some of the country's largest tech companies visiting him at his Mar-a-Lago estate during the transition and attending his inauguration last month. Trump has vowed to target policies abroad he says harm those giants but many of his moves, such as fresh tariffs, threaten to squeeze tech companies that rely on global supply chains.
