The European Commission is considering imposing tariffs on American tech giants such as "Meta" or "Google" if trade negotiations between the US and the EU fail. This was stated by the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen in an interview with the British publication "Financial Times", DPA reported, quoted by BTA.
The US and the EU have postponed their planned increases in tariffs on imported goods to allow negotiations on the subject, but Brussels is preparing for the possibility that diplomatic efforts may fail to resolve the trade dispute.
If the negotiations do not develop satisfactorily, the EU has a wide range of countermeasures at its disposal, Von der Leyen announced.
"For example, a tax could be imposed on advertising revenue from digital services," she added.
The EU announced yesterday that it was postponing the entry into force of retaliatory tariffs on the US by 90 days following President Donald Trump's decision to postpone US tariffs on imports from most of its trading partners, including the EU, to allow trade negotiations to take place.
If There is no change in US trade policy, "we are ready to defend our economic interests and companies", announced EU Economic Affairs Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis upon his arrival at a meeting of EU finance ministers in Warsaw.
"The situation remains very uncertain and unstable", he stressed.
However, Germany's acting Finance Minister Jörg Kukis urged caution.
"We (the EU) have to be careful with technology companies because we have no real alternatives", he added.
Business representatives have reported that there are no large cloud or artificial intelligence providers that could be an alternative to US companies, he said.
Meanwhile, EC Trade Spokesperson Olof Gill said today that EU Trade Commissioner Maroš Šefčovič would travel to Washington on Sunday for talks, Reuters reported.
"The trade commissioner is going to Washington to try to sign agreements. That is what we are focused on. All possible options are open if the negotiations do not lead to a good outcome," Gill told Irish National Radio.