United States President Donald Trump has raised his tone against countries that discuss the taxation or regulation of large American technology companies. In posting on his social network social network on Monday night (25), he said that any nation that creates “taxation, legislation, rules or digital regulations” against Big Techs will suffer additional US export rates and also restrictions on importing advanced chips and cutting-edge technology.
The threat hits countries that draw some kind of Big Techs legislation from Europeans to Brazil – which is already subject to the world’s largest rate of 50%, despite a long list of exceptions.
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What Trump said
Trump was straightforward: “I notify all countries with taxes, legislation, rules or digital regulations that, unless these discriminatory actions are removed, I, as president of the United States, imposed additional additional rates on exports of that country to the US and establish restrictions on the exportation of our technology and highly protected chips.”
Why does that matter?
The message makes it clear that Washington is willing to transform chips and semiconductors into a pressure weapon, at a time when companies like Nvidia (BDR:) and AMD () depend on freedom of export to maintain their global competitiveness.
The theme does not arise out of nowhere, being part of a broader strategy to protect American companies in commercial disputes.
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The US had already started an investigation into Brazilian technology laws, after formal complaints
In addition, Trump had already used similar measures this year against Canada, which retreated from a digital tax proposal. Also. The European Union also faces constant friction with Washington around digital rules.
Brazil in the target
Brazil appears implicitly at the center of this discussion. In addition to discussing the creation of the Digital Social Contribution (CSD), proposed by Deputy Guilherme Boulos (PSOL-SP), the Lula government intends to send two bills to Congress:
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- one of content regulationwhich provides for punishments to platforms that do not curb crimes, blows and fraud,
- and another from economic regulationfocused on the five largest big techs.
These initiatives had already motivated ITI complaints to the Trump administration, which saw in them risk of “censorship” and cost increasing for American companies.
Lula’s answer
The morning after the announcement, President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva responded during a ministerial meeting broadcast by the press. Lula stated that “for us, they (the big techs) are American heritage, but they are not our assets.”
He added that “we are a sovereign country, we have a constitution, we have legislation, who wants to enter in these 8.5 million square kilometers, in our airspace, in our maritime space, in our forests, have to be accountable to our constitution and our legislation.”
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Lula also said that and reiterated that Brazil will continue with the regular digital platform plan. In the government assessment, foreign companies must adapt to local legislation rather than unilaterally define sector rules.
