The Biden administration said Wednesday it will impose new tariffs on the United Kingdom and five other countries in retaliation for their taxes on American tech companies, but the government will not implement the tariffs for six months as it tries to negotiate a resolution to the conflict.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative said its investigations had determined tariffs were justified on the U.K., Austria, India, Italy, Spain, and Turkey for their digital services taxes imposed on U.S. tech giants such as Facebook, Google, and Amazon.
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Former President Donald Trump’s administration began the investigations into the tech taxes in June of last year.
“The United States is focused on finding a multilateral solution to a range of key issues related to international taxation, including our concerns with digital services taxes,” United States Trade Representative Katherine Tai said in a statement Wednesday.
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The tariffs, which will be suspended for a few months to try for a negotiated resolution, would be launched under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974, a law that gives the Biden administration significant powers to impose aggressive tariffs and was also used by the Trump administration in its trade war with China.
Tai said the U.S. will try to resolve the tax conflict and find common ground through negotiations conducted by the Group of 20 economic powers and other international groups.
