The European Union (EU) should not rule out targeting US tech companies in the bloc’s retaliation to sweeping tariffs announced by US president Donald Trump, a senior MEP has said.
Bernd Lange, the chair of the European Parliament’s trade committee, said tariffs on digital services and tech giants, would be one way to increase the pressure on the US to come to the negotiating table.
Mr Trump announced 20 per cent tariffs on nearly all trade coming from the EU into the US, in a blunt attempt to rebalance what the Republican leader views as an unfair trading relationship between the long-standing allies.
Speaking on Thursday morning, European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said there seemed to be “no order to the disorder” of Mr Trump’s plans.
The head of the EU’s executive arm, which is responsible for the bloc’s trade policy, said it would respond with a series of countermeasures to protect European interests.
The US tariffs, which are effectively taxes charged to import products, would damage the global economy, she said.
“From the outset we have always been ready to negotiate with the US … It is not too late to address concerns through negotiation,” she said. Dr von der Leyen said many Europeans would rightly feel “let down by our oldest ally”.
The commission had already been preparing to hit €26 billion worth of US goods with tariffs, in response to import taxes Mr Trump previously levied on steel and aluminium last month.
The exact US products to be targeted has been the subject of intense lobbying. The Government has pushed back against plans to hit US bourbon, due to fears Mr Trump would respond with even higher tariffs on Irish whiskey in retribution. France has also raised concerns about bourbon, to protect its exports of wine and champagne from steeper tariffs.
The EU is preparing a further package of retaliatory levies, in response to the vast US tariffs announced on Wednesday.
Mr Lange said the union could target US tech multinationals and digital services, if the trade dispute continued to escalate. “If we are really in an escalation level, then of course we will have a look to the tech giants as well. I would say this is not our first choice,” he said.
Another option would be to trigger emergency measures to fight economic coercion, which could put restrictions on US companies intellectual property rights. The EU’s anti-coercion instrument, colloquially known as the “big bazooka” of its trade arsenal, would be a measure of “last resort”, Mr Lange said
Belgium’s foreign minister Maxime Prevot said everybody would lose out in a trade war. “It would indeed be inappropriate to take measures that could harm us more than the United States. But by playing with matches, the United States will end up getting burned,” he said.
Polish prime minister Donald Tusk said the EU would need to take “adequate decisions” in response to US tariffs.
In a statement, Malte Lohan, head of the American Chamber of Commerce’s EU office, said tariffs would damage both the US and EU. “We are calling on the EU to avoid further escalation of the dispute and instead prioritise creating the environment required for negotiating an exemption from the tariffs,” he said.
