EU President Ursula von der Leyen stated on Thursday that the EU is prepared to deploy its most powerful trade measures, potentially imposing levies on U.S. digital companies, if negotiations with U.S. President Donald Trump are unsuccessful.
The EU seeks a balanced agreement with Washington during Trump's 90-day pause in applying additional tariffs.
Von der Leyen warned that the EU is ready to expand the transatlantic trade war to services if talks fail, potentially including a tax on digital advertising revenues affecting tech groups like Meta and Alphabet's Google.
According to Von der Leyen, Trump's trade war has caused "a complete inflection point in global trade". She stated that the commission had previously attempted to negotiate with the U.S. but was told to wait until Trump's April 2 announcement, which imposed a 20 per cent tariff on the EU.
The EU will implement protective measures if a new monitoring system detects an increase in Chinese imports, preventing them from flooding European markets due to U.S. tariffs.