Trump Warns of Substantial Tariffs on EU After Google Penalty

Donald Trump reacted with sharp criticism against the European Commission after the institution imposed a heavy fine on Alphabet, Google’s parent company.

The US president warned that in retaliation for the multi-billion-euro EU fine on Google, he could impose “a substantial tariff” on imports from the EU. In a post on his Truth Social platform, he wrote: “The European Union will pay a very high price for this unlawful and extremely unethical behavior, which I have consistently warned them about.”

Authorities in Washington are expected to open an investigation into “discriminatory trade practices,” relying on Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974. According to the US side, the move is linked to what is being described as the “extortion” of US companies.

Section 301 allows the US government to respond to trade practices that are found to be “unjustifiable, unreasonable, or discriminatory.” Among the measures that can be taken is the imposition of tariffs.

Based on this section, US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer on Thursday (22.07.) set new tariffs on around 60 trading partners. The decision was justified on the grounds that these countries had not done enough to combat forced labor.

The European Commission imposed the fine on Google on 22.07. It amounts to 890 million euros, or about 1 billion US dollars.

The Commission reasoned that Google had violated EU rules designed to curb the dominant market position of large tech giants. /dw