Former US President Donald Trump has accused the European Union of deliberately disadvantaging American companies and has announced plans for a new investigation under US trade law.
In a statement posted on his platform, Truth Social, on Friday, Trump criticized the fines imposed by the EU on major US technology corporations, including Apple, Meta, Amazon, and Google. He deemed these penalties “illegal” and “highly discriminatory,” insisting that the United States would not permit American companies to act as a “piggy bank” for Europe.
Trump specifically highlighted the $1 billion fine placed on Google this week, stating that previous EU penalties against the company had totaled over $18 billion. He announced his intention to overturn these financial penalties and threatened to impose “significant tariffs” against the European Union. The investigation he referenced uses “Section 301” of US trade law, a mechanism that allows the US government to take trade countermeasures against foreign practices deemed unfair or detrimental to American businesses.
This comes shortly after the US government announced new tariffs on 60 countries, which include members of the European Union. These recent duties, also based on US trade law, were imposed following alleged failures to address forced labor. Clearly, this strategy aims to provide a stronger legal basis for tariffs after previous attempts of this kind were overturned by the US Supreme Court.
