{"id":331512,"date":"2026-04-24T12:42:44","date_gmt":"2026-04-24T12:42:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/political\/trump-warns-of-big-tariff-if-uk-doesnt-drop-digital-services-tax-on-u-s-tech-firms.html"},"modified":"2026-04-24T12:42:44","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T12:42:44","slug":"trump-warns-of-big-tariff-if-uk-doesnt-drop-digital-services-tax-on-u-s-tech-firms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/political\/trump-warns-of-big-tariff-if-uk-doesnt-drop-digital-services-tax-on-u-s-tech-firms.html","title":{"rendered":"Trump warns of \u2018big tariff\u2019 if UK doesn\u2019t drop digital services tax on U.S. tech firms"},"content":{"rendered":"<p id=\"MainContent\">\n<header class=\"ArticleHeader-articleHeader\" id=\"main-article-header\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"Author-authorPortrait\" src=\"https:\/\/timesofnews.b-cdn.net\/timesofnewscdn\/usa\/69e2544a_108177746-1753710874992-Sam_Meredith-53.jpg\" alt=\"thumbnail\" \/><span>WATCH LIVE<\/span><\/header>\n<p><span class=\"HighlightShare-hidden\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p>U.S. President <a href=\"javascript:void(0)\">Donald Trump<\/a> has delivered a stark warning to the U.K., threatening to impose steep tariffs on the country unless it drops its digital services tax on U.S. tech companies. <\/p>\n<p>The tax, which was first introduced in 2020, is a 2% levy on the revenues of search engines, social media services and online marketplaces that derive value from U.K. users. This includes several U.S. companies like <span class=\"QuoteInBody-quoteNameContainer\" data-test=\"QuoteInBody\" id=\"RegularArticle-QuoteInBody-2\">Alphabet<span class=\"QuoteInBody-inlineButton\"><span class=\"AddToWatchlistButton-watchlistContainer\" id=\"-WatchlistDropdown\" data-analytics-id=\"-WatchlistDropdown\"><button class=\"AddToWatchlistButton-watchlistButton\" aria-label=\"Add To Watchlist\" data-testid=\"dropdown-btn\"><span class=\"AddToWatchlistButton-addWatchListFromTag\"><\/span><\/button><\/span><\/span><\/span>&#8216;s Google, <span class=\"QuoteInBody-quoteNameContainer\" data-test=\"QuoteInBody\" id=\"RegularArticle-QuoteInBody-3\">Meta<span class=\"QuoteInBody-inlineButton\"><span class=\"AddToWatchlistButton-watchlistContainer\" id=\"-WatchlistDropdown\" data-analytics-id=\"-WatchlistDropdown\"><button class=\"AddToWatchlistButton-watchlistButton\" aria-label=\"Add To Watchlist\" data-testid=\"dropdown-btn\"><span class=\"AddToWatchlistButton-addWatchListFromTag\"><\/span><\/button><\/span><\/span><\/span> and <span class=\"QuoteInBody-quoteNameContainer\" data-test=\"QuoteInBody\" id=\"RegularArticle-QuoteInBody-4\">Apple<span class=\"QuoteInBody-inlineButton\"><span class=\"AddToWatchlistButton-watchlistContainer\" id=\"-WatchlistDropdown\" data-analytics-id=\"-WatchlistDropdown\"><button class=\"AddToWatchlistButton-watchlistButton\" aria-label=\"Add To Watchlist\" data-testid=\"dropdown-btn\"><span class=\"AddToWatchlistButton-addWatchListFromTag\"><\/span><\/button><\/span><\/span><\/span>. <\/p>\n<p>Speaking from the Oval Office on Thursday, Trump criticized those he said were seeking to make an &#8220;easy buck&#8221; by targeting American companies.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We have been looking at it, and we can meet that very easily by just putting a big tariff on the U.K., so they better be careful,&#8221; Trump said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;If they don&#8217;t drop the tax, we&#8217;ll probably put a big tariff on the U.K.,&#8221; he added, without providing a specific figure.<\/p>\n<p>CNBC has contacted the U.K.&#8217;s Department for Business and Trade and is awaiting a response.<\/p>\n<p>Britain&#8217;s ruling Labor government has previously defended the tax, which it sees as an important fiscal measure given it <a href=\"javascript:void(0)\">raised revenues<\/a> of around \u00a3800 million ($1.08 billion) in the 2024-2025 financial year.<\/p>\n<p>The measure went unchanged when the U.S. and U.K. agreed to a <a href=\"javascript:void(0)\">trade deal<\/a> in May last year, although Trump told Sky News earlier in the month that the terms of the agreement &#8220;<a href=\"javascript:void(0)\">can always be changed<\/a>.&#8221;   <\/p>\n<p>Trump&#8217;s comments follow a series of <a href=\"javascript:void(0)\">publicly critical remarks<\/a> about U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer in recent weeks, reviving trans-Atlantic trade tensions ahead of a <a href=\"javascript:void(0)\">four-day U.S. state visit<\/a> by King Charles III and Queen Camilla.<\/p>\n<p>The king and queen are scheduled to travel to the U.S. on Monday and are expected to meet Trump at the White House.<\/p>\n<p>Article source: https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/2026\/04\/24\/trump-tariffs-uk-tech-apple-google-meta.html<\/a>\r\n<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>WATCH LIVE U.S. President Donald Trump has delivered a stark warning to the U.K., threatening to impose steep tariffs on the country unless it drops its digital services tax on U.S. tech companies. The tax, which was first introduced in 2020, is a 2% levy on the revenues of search engines, social media services and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[84],"class_list":["post-331512","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-political","tag-political"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/331512","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=331512"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/331512\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=331512"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=331512"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=331512"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}