Washington is preparing a fresh tariff investigation aimed at the European Union over its treatment of American technology companies, while Britain is expected to be left off the target list, The Times has reported.
The United States plans to open a Section 301 inquiry under the Trade Act of 1974 as soon as this month.
That procedure lets Washington impose duties if it finds foreign practices “unreasonable or discriminatory”.
Brussels is expected to be the main target after Digital Markets Act (DMA) fines on US firms, including an €890 million penalty on Google on July 23 for alleged self-preferencing.
US President Donald Trump said he would “immediately initiate a 301 Investigation into the practice of ‘ROBBING’ American companies and, in turn, the American taxpayer”. Writing on Truth Social on July 24, he said the fines would be “entirely reversed” and that the United States was not a “PIGGYBANK” for Europe.
A Trump administration official now told The Times: “The timeline and countries are not decided, but they can expect it to cover more than the EU and to be initiated as soon as possible.”
Senior figures familiar with the talks said Britain had been omitted from the likely target list, even though Washington still wants London to repeal the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act, which allows fines of up to 10 per cent of worldwide turnover.
The delay followed the February 20 Supreme Court ruling that struck down sweeping tariffs imposed under emergency powers. The court held, by six votes to three in Learning Resources Inc. v Trump, that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act does not give a president the power to impose tariffs. Trump replaced the duties with a temporary 10 per cent global tariff under Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974, an authority capped at 150 days. It lapsed on July 24, the moment USTR brought in Section 301 tariffs of 10 or 12.5 per cent on 60 economies over the failure to bar goods made with forced labour.
A source said the administration had spent months “getting around” that judgment and was now returning to “focused tariff goals, and digital policy is right at the top of that list”.
Once launched, the inquiry would set a timetable and a threatened rate. Duties could still be suspended if talks continued.
The trade threat sits on top of a different fight over speech rules both with the UK and the EU.
On June 26 Trump separately threatened a 100 per cent tariff on any country that imposed a digital services tax, saying it would “supersede” existing deals. The warning came days before a July 4 deadline for both sides to begin implementing a framework agreed in May that caps most tariffs on EU exports at 15 per cent.
France, Italy, Spain and Austria already levy such taxes. Canada was hit on August 22 with duties of 50 per cent on about $20 billion (€17.2 billion) of goods after talks collapsed.
No start date or rate for the EU case has been published.
European Commission trade spokesman Olof Gill said on June 26 that the EU and its member states held the sovereign right to regulate economic activities on their territory, in line with democratic values and international commitments. Unilateral measures against such policies were unjustified, he added: “If pursued, the EU will respond swiftly and decisively to defend its rights and regulatory autonomy.”
Gill described digital taxes as non-discriminatory by design and said they applied equally to all large companies whatever their country of origin.
Competition Commissioner Teresa Ribera said after the €890 million Google penalty that the company had fallen short of effective compliance with the DMA and that the Commission had taken “decisive yet balanced enforcement action”.
The Commission treats DMA fines as ordinary enforcement of single-market rules, not as a trade measure, despite the US stance.
