EU fires back at Trump's tariff threats over European digital rules

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BRUSSELS — The European Commission fired back Monday at Donald Trump’s fresh tariff threats against Europe’s tech rules, just as EU and U.S. officials opened talks in Washington meant to repair their increasingly strained digital relationship.

A delegation led by the EU’s top tech official, Roberto Viola, is in Washington until Wednesday for what the Commission is calling a “dialogue on a future potential dialogue” with its U.S. counterparts.

The visit comes after the U.S. president threatened new tariffs on EU countries that impose digital service taxes on American tech companies in a post on his social media platform Friday. The U.S. State Department also called recent EU initiatives to boost tech sovereignty “protectionist,” in a comment to POLITICO on Sunday.

“Our position is very clear,” Commission spokesperson Thomas Regnier told reporters on Monday. “The EU and its member states have the sovereign right to regulate any economic activities on their territory.”

“The EU will respond swiftly and decisively,” Regnier added, should Washington follow through with “unilateral measures targeting such legitimate policies.”

Since Trump’s return to the White House, the U.S. administration has ramped up attacks on the bloc’s tech laws, accusing them of unfairly targeting American firms.

Trump’s top envoy in Brussels, Andrew Puzder, told POLITICO in March that Washington wants the tech dialogue to include the EU’s tech rules, which U.S. companies say are too burdensome.

The EU executive recently unveiled a long-awaited legislative package designed to reduce Europe’s years-long reliance on U.S. technology, which is increasingly seen as a strategic vulnerability. The plan is a long game: boosting European tech champions while giving governments new ways to shut U.S. players out of the most sensitive parts of the public-sector market.

“Protectionist measures in upcoming EU tech sovereignty laws risk undermining our partnership,” a spokesperson for the U.S. State Department said in a statement to POLITICO, recalling the recent trade deal that “requires eliminating non-tariff barriers to trade.”

“The path forward is deregulation and collaboration on AI and chips,” they added.

The comment came just after the U.S. moved to partially lift the export restrictions on Anthropic’s latest superhacking AI models, which sparked an uproar in Europe and kept fueling fears of a so-called tech kill switch at Trump’s fingertips.

“We believe that we are a trusted partner, not a security risk,” Regnier said, not ruling out that the issue of foreign access to AI models could be raised in this week’s meetings.

An internal preparatory document seen by POLITICO shows that the talks will involve artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, the online protection of minors, connectivity, chips and digital trade. “The discussion is currently ongoing, which shows that both sides definitely want this,” Regnier said.

Jasper Bennink contributed to the reporting.