+COMMENT US president Donald Trump has threatened to impose extra tariffs on imports from any nation that dares to regulate American technology companies.
Trump took to Truth Social on Monday evening to declare “As the President of the United States, I will stand up to Countries that attack our incredible American Tech Companies.”
“Digital Taxes, Digital Services Legislation, and Digital Markets Regulations are all designed to harm, or discriminate against, American Technology. They also, outrageously, give a complete pass to China's largest Tech Companies,” he added.
“This must end, and NOW!” his post continued, before promising “substantial additional Tariffs” on any nation that dares to persist with regulations, plus “Export restrictions on our Highly Protected Technology and Chips.”
“America, and American Technology Companies, are neither the ‘piggy bank’ nor the ‘doormat’ of the World any longer,” he added, before wrapping things up with a demand to “Show respect to America and our amazing Tech Companies or, consider the consequences!”
The post makes no mention of the following known facts about American Big tech companies:
We could go on, but you get the idea. America’s tech companies are immensely powerful, efforts to rein them in have seldom succeeded, and China does not get a free pass.
Trump has made threats like this before, but this time he has raised the stakes by adding the prospect of tech export bans.
Such bans would likely harm other US tech companies. Chipmakers aren’t subject to digital services taxes, and lost billions when the administration banned sales of all GPUs to China. A comprehensive tech export ban could defend Google and Meta by hurting Intel – which the USA now partially owns – and the likes of Nvidia and AMD.
Recent history suggests two possible outcomes: The world will try to negotiate with Washington about this matter and end up making modest concessions the president claims as a win, or nothing happens because Trump’s posts are often thought bubbles. ®
Source: The register