US President Donald Trump has threatened to hit the European Union with tariffs and a formal trade investigation over Brussels’ latest antitrust penalty against Google.
In a post on Friday on his Truth Social platform, Trump said the bloc “will pay a very big price for this illegal and highly unethical conduct, which I have consistently warned them about.”
He said he would “immediately initiate a 301 Investigation” into what he called the EU’s practice of “ROBBING” American companies, and said he anticipated a “substantial TARIFF” on the bloc “at the earliest possible moment.”
“The United States of America is not a ‘PIGGYBANK’ for Europe, nor will we allow it to be,” he wrote.
Section 301 of the 1974 Trade Act allows Washington to probe foreign practices it deems discriminatory and retaliate with tariffs.
EU’s Google ruling
The European Commission on Thursday fined Google $1 billion for breaching the Digital Markets Act (DMA), the bloc’s landmark law policing the conduct of dominant online platforms.
