Trump considers tariffs to counteract foreign taxes on tech firms, WSJ reports

President Donald 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, The Wall Street Journal’s Gavin Bade reports. 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, including certain European Union member nations, as well as Canada, India and others, and 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.” “What they’re doing to us in other countries is terrible with digital,” Trump said. Publicly traded companies in the space include Apple (AAPL), Amazon (AMZN), Nvidia (NVDA), Alphabet (GOOG) (GOOGL), Microsoft (MSFT), Meta (META), and Tesla (TSLA).