The United States will open an investigation into the European Union’s trade practices, President Donald Trump said Friday, claiming Brussels has unfairly imposed billions of dollars in fines against Google, Apple and other American tech giants.
The announcement came a day after the EU fined Google 890 million euros, roughly a billion dollars, after finding that the tech company violated digital antitrust rules by designing Google Play and its dominant search engine to steer consumers toward its own services and applications at the expense of competitors.
In a lengthy social media post, Trump said he had already warned the EU about its pattern of fining American technology companies, naming Google, Apple, Meta, Amazon and others. He wrote that the United States is not a “safe” for Europe to raid, nor will it allow itself to become one, adding that the post should serve as notice of an immediate trade investigation into what he called the practice of “robbing” American companies and, by extension, American taxpayers.
He said the European Union would pay a very high price for what he described as illegal and highly unethical conduct that he has repeatedly warned against. Trump also said the penalties against the companies would be fully reversed and predicted that a substantial tariff would be imposed on the EU as soon as possible.
Read more: Trump imposes new tariffs on more than 80 countries under a forced-labor law. Legal experts say he may not have the authority to do it
Trump’s move comes a day after the White House announced double-digit tariffs on imports from more than 60 countries, accusing them of failing to properly enforce bans on goods made with forced labor. The new tariffs replace the temporary 10% worldwide import taxes Trump had imposed after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down his earlier, higher tariffs.
The new rates are being implemented under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974, which allows the president to impose import taxes and other sanctions against countries engaging in trade practices deemed unjustifiable, unreasonable or discriminatory.
The European Union today took positive note of the new tariffs announced by the United States, which comply with the 15% ceiling set out in the agreement signed a year ago between the two blocs. European Commission trade spokesperson Olof Gill said the EU positively notes that this outcome aligns with the U.S. tariff commitments agreed under the EU-U.S. Joint Declaration.
Gill said the arrangement establishes an all-inclusive 10% tariff rate for the EU and reinstates exemptions from additional customs duties on certain European products, such as cork and diamonds, in addition to goods that were already exempt, including aircraft and their spare parts, as well as generic medicines. He added that this creates positive momentum for transatlantic talks on a range of issues, from strategic raw materials to artificial intelligence.
