If Germany wants to tax digital services (meaning all digital services and not just American digital services) that is not a tariff. Germany is free to tax digital services as long at it doesn’t directly target US digital services.
Edit: This comment is a response to the initial text before being edited.
No problem. We all misinterpret things from time to time.
I believe it is important that we don’t blindly accept Trump’s framing that this is a tariff, because that is exactly the framing Trump used to justify his “retaliatory” tariffs from last year.
If it is a TAX specifically on US services, it is a tariff. This is decidedly false, EU has tariffs as a central part of what EU is about.
Taxation and Customs Union:
https://taxation-customs.ec.europa.eu/customs/common-customs-tariff-cct/tariff-classification-goods/eu-customs-tariff-taric_en
https://www.wto.org/english/res_e/statis_e/daily_update_e/tariff_profiles/E28_e.pdf
If you break that, you cannot be a member, it was key all the way back to when it was called EEC. Your claim is decidedly false.
Taxation is not a tariff.
If Germany wants to tax digital services (meaning all digital services and not just American digital services) that is not a tariff. Germany is free to tax digital services as long at it doesn’t directly target US digital services.
Edit: This comment is a response to the initial text before being edited.
Sorry I made a pretty significant edit. Exactly because I found out that the way UK designed it, it is not a tariff.
No problem. We all misinterpret things from time to time.
I believe it is important that we don’t blindly accept Trump’s framing that this is a tariff, because that is exactly the framing Trump used to justify his “retaliatory” tariffs from last year.