Trump Shoots More Holes In The Floor of His Sinking Boat

Greg Taylor

2025-02-23 23:29:29 UTC

More tariffs for you to pay!

This time on goods from Britain, France, Italy, Spain, Turkey, India,
Austria and Canada! Trump is wrong of course. The tax is because
they're getting a free ride on advertising target nation goods and services
so they need to pay their taxes one way or the other.

This is like Trump being in a sinking rowboat and blowing holes in the
bottom of it while saying "I'm punishing these assholes! They're paying
for it just like Mexico paid for the wall"

Oh well, don't worry. Look forward to seeing "Made In Russia" on all your
goods at the store soon because they'll be the only ones who you won't be
paying for tariffs on.

Trump orders tariffs on digital service tax countries, including Canada -
National

U.S. President Donald Trump has signed a memorandum to impose tariffs on
countries that levy digital service taxes on U.S. technology companies, a
White House official said.

Another official, providing details of the order, said Trump was directing
his administration to consider responsive actions like tariffs to combat
the digital service taxes (DSTs), fines, practices, and policies that
foreign governments levy on American companies.

President Trump will not allow foreign governments to appropriate
Americas tax base for their own benefit, the official said.

The memo directs the U.S. Trade Representatives office to renew digital
service taxes investigations that were initiated during Trumps first term,
and investigate any additional countries that use a digital tax to
discriminate against U.S. companies, the official said.

Trump said last week that he would impose tariffs on Canada and France over
their digital service taxes, and a White House fact sheet released at the
time said that only America should be allowed to tax American firms.
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It complained that Canada and France used the taxes to each collect over
$500 million per year from U.S. companies.

Overall, these non-reciprocal taxes cost Americas firms over $2 billion
per year. Reciprocal tariffs will bring back fairness and prosperity to the
distorted international trade system and stop Americans from being taken
advantage of, said the fact sheet. It gave no further details.

The digital service taxes aimed at U.S. tech giants including Alphabets
Google, Metas Facebook, Apple and Amazon have been a source of trade
disputes for years.
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Britain, France, Italy, Spain, Turkey, India, Austria and Canada have
imposed the taxes, levied on revenues earned from digital services sold
within their borders.

The U.S. Trade Representatives office during Trumps first term found them
to discriminate against U.S. companies and readied retaliatory tariffs.

President Joe Bidens trade chief, Katherine Tai, in 2021 followed up on
those probes and announced 25% tariffs on over $2 billion worth of imports
from six countries, but immediately suspended them to allow negotiations on
a global tax deal to continue.

Those negotiations led to a 15% global corporate minimum tax that the U.S.
Congress never ratified. Talks on a second component, meant to create an
alternative to the digital taxes, have largely ground to a halt with no

Trump on his first day in office effectively pulled the U.S. out of the
global tax arrangement with nearly 140 countries, declaring that the 15%
global minimum tax has no force or effect in the United States and
ordering the U.S. Treasury to prepare options for protective measures.

A new Trump order could allow USTRs retaliatory duties to be reactivated.
They were designed to offset the amount of digital service taxes collected.

In 2021 USTR said it would impose 25% tariffs on about $887 million worth
of goods from Britain, including clothing, footwear and cosmetics, and on
about $386 million worth of goods from Italy, including clothing, handbags
and optical lenses.

USTR said at the time it would impose tariffs on goods worth $323 million
from Spain, $310 million from Turkey, $118 million from India and $65
million from Austria. USTR separately suspended tariffs on $1.3 billion
worth of French cosmetics, handbags and other goods.