By Gavin Bade

President Trump on Friday signed a presidential memo directing his administration to evaluate placing tariffs on trading partners that levy taxes and regulations against American tech companies, taking aim at a major trade irritant for companies like Meta and Google.

"What they're doing to us in other countries is terrible with digital," Trump said in the Oval Office on Friday.

The memo directs the U.S. Trade Representative's office to renew tariff investigations started during Trump's first term on countries that impose digital services taxes, according to a fact sheet provided by the administration. Those countries include certain European Union member nations, as well as Canada, India and others.

Trump has long argued that such taxes unfairly target American firms. His nominee to serve as U.S. Trade Representative, Jamieson Greer, spoke out against the digital service taxes during this confirmation hearing on Capitol Hill this month.

The memo also directs agencies to look beyond taxes and devise ways to respond to foreign tech regulations, as well as "unfair fines, practices, and penalties that undermine the ability of American companies to operate as intended," the fact sheet said.

The time frame for the investigations wasn't immediately laid out by the White House. Trump has separately ordered a number of trade policy reviews to be completed by April 1.

Penalizing countries that tax U.S. tech firms would address a longstanding irritant for Silicon Valley, which has been targeted by a number of nations levy digital services taxes and antitrust investigations in recent years.

In 2019, Trump's USTR initiated tariff probes into digital taxes in France, Italy, Spain, India and other nations, finding them to be discriminatory toward U.S. firms. But the Biden administration didn't act on the matter, sparking broad outcry from the tech industry and Republicans on Capitol Hill.

With Trump back in office, the prospect of action has grown more likely. Trump has used hardball tactics to counter digital services taxes before, like when he threatened to impose tariffs on French wines and champagnes if Paris didn't pull back on its tax. President Emmanuel Macron relented at the time, but France has since instated a digital services tax that could be targeted by Trump once again.

Greer, the Trump trade nominee, told senators early this month that the U.S. "should not be outsourcing our regulation to the European Union or Brazil or anyone else. They can't discriminate against us, and it won't be tolerated."

Trump's actions on digital trade issues come as Silicon Valley mounts a concerted campaign to cozy up to the new administration. Earlier on Friday, Trump told reporters he had met with Apple CEO Tim Cook the day before, and that the company is planning to "invest hundreds of billions of dollars" in the U.S. -- a claim the company hasn't yet confirmed.

Separately, USTR also announced it would open a comment period on potential tariffs or other trade remedies on the Chinese shipbuilding industry, which the U.S. and other governments say is unfairly subsidized by Beijing. The Biden administration, on its last day in office, recommended action against the Chinese sector. The announcement from USTR indicates the Trump administration will seek to build its own record on the issue before acting.

Write to Gavin Bade at gavin.bade@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

February 21, 2025 18:14 ET (23:14 GMT)

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