The US Trade Representative's (USTR) office said it had
approved the threatened tariffs on goods from Britain, Italy, Spain, Turkey,
India, and Austria after a "Section 301" investigation concluded that
their digital taxes discriminated against US companies.
USTR published lists of imports from the six countries that
would face tariffs if international tax negotiations fail to reach a solution
that prohibits countries from imposing unilateral digital services taxes.
USTR said it would impose 25 percent tariffs on about $887
million worth of goods from Britain, including clothing, overcoats, footwear,
and cosmetics, and on about $386 million worth of goods from Italy, including
clothing, handbags and optical lenses. USTR said it would impose tariffs on
goods worth $323 million from Spain, $310 million from Turkey, $118 million
from India and $65 million from Austria.
The potential tariffs, based on 2019 import data, aim to
equal the amount of digital taxes that would be collected from US firms, a USTR
official said.
The move underscores the US threat of retaliation as finance
leaders from G7 countries prepare to meet in London on Friday and Saturday to
discuss the state of tax negotiations, including taxation of large technology
companies and a US proposal for a global minimum corporate tax.
US tariffs threatened against France over its digital tax
were suspended in January to allow time for negotiations.
US Trade Representative Katherine Tai said she was focused
on "finding a multilateral solution" to digital taxes and other
international tax issues and was committed to reaching a consensus through the
OECD and G20 negotiations.
"Today's actions provide time for those negotiations to
continue to make progress while maintaining the option of imposing tariffs
under Section 301 if warranted in the future," Tai added.
Tai faced a Wednesday deadline to announce the tariff
action, or the statutory authority under the Section 301 probes would have
lapsed, one year after they were opened by the Trump administration.
A British government spokesperson said the UK tax was aimed
at ensuring tech firms pay their fair share of tax and was temporary.
"Our digital services tax is reasonable, proportionate
and non-discriminatory," the spokesperson said. "It's also temporary
and we're working positively with international partners to find a global
solution to this problem. We will remove the DST when that is
implemented."
© Reuters