Live “unfair digital tax”. The USA set a condition to sit down to duties

We want European countries to bear taxes on digital services that affect American companies – said US finance minister Scott Bessent on Tuesday, suggesting that this is a condition for negotiations with the EU regarding customs. He also announced the soon finalization of commercial agreements with India and South Korea. and lowering tariffs for cars.

Bessent talked about the US negotiations on customs duties on the 100th day of Donald Trump's presidency. As he announced, the arrangement with India may soon be signed, South Korea talks are at the advanced stage, and “full -bodied” negotiations are also ongoing with Japan. When asked about talks with the European Union, Bessent admitted that he was more involved in negotiations with Asian partners, but suggested that the US would like to abolish digital taxes by individual EU countries.

“My observation reaches until Henry Kissinger's statement: + When I call Europe, who should I call? + We negotiate, taking into account various interests (partners). Some European countries, such as France and Italy, have imposed an unfair tax on digital services on our large internet providers. Other countries, such as Germany and Poland, do not have such tax.” “We want to see that this unfair tax (imposed) on one of the largest American industries will be lifted. (…) they (Europeans – PAP) have some internal matters to be resolved before they can get involved in external negotiations” – argued the minister.

In March, the minister of digitization Krzysztof Gawkowski talked about plans to introduce digital tax in Poland. This met with immediate criticism from the candidate for the US ambassador in Poland Tom Rose, who threatened Donald Trump's retaliation.

Last week, the EU Commissioner for Economy Valdis Dombrovskis said after meeting Bessent that “a lot of work” still needed to reach an agreement with the USA. He suggested that the Americans did not have specific demands, but did not mention the issue of digital taxes.

Speaking of negotiations with China, the Minister of Finance did not want to answer the question whether the US actually conducts talks with Beijing, as President Trump claims (and China denies this). He emphasized, however, that China should care more about the resolution of the trade war, because the USA in the amount of 145 percent introduced by the US. They are “insurmountable” for the Chinese economy.

“I have seen a few very large numbers in the last few days, which show that if these mocks persist, the Chinese can lose 10 million jobs very quickly. And even if there is a decrease in tariffs, they can lose 5 million jobs. So remember that we are a deficit country. They sell almost five times more goods than we do, so this will have the burden of the abolition of these duties,” said Bessent. He assured that, despite the sharp decline in the number of containers with goods from China, flowing to the USA, America is not waiting for “shock of supply chains” because American companies prepared for the introduction of customs.

The spokeswoman for the White House, Karoline Leavitt, announced that President Trump on Tuesday, during a visit to Warren, Michigan – the Center for the Motor industry – would sign a regulation regarding cuts introduced to cars. According to media reports, the decree is to reduce the 25 % duties to car parts, which were announced in March, but are to enter into force on May 3. This is a response to the complaints of automotive concerns, including American ones, which duties were to help theoretically.

Leavitt also condemned the Amazon concern for announcing that it would display the costs of imposed duties at product prices. The spokeswoman estimated that this is a “enemy and political act”. She asked why the company did not apply a similar surgery on inflation during Joe Biden's term. She did not want to answer the question whether the president of Amazon Jeff Bezos still supports Donald Trump.

From Washington Oskar Górzyński (PAP)

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