Trump threatens EU with tariffs over ‘very unfair’ Google ruling

WASHINGTON – US President Donald Trump lashed out at the European Union on Sept 5 for slapping Google with an “unfair” US$3.47 billion (S$4.4 billion) antitrust fine, threatening retaliatory tariffs if the bloc does not repeal the measure.

Mr Trump’s intervention came a day after he hosted tech titans for a gala dinner at the White House, including Google’s chief executive Sundar Pichai and co-founder Sergey Brin.

“Europe today ‘hit’ another great American company, Google, with a $3.5 Billion Dollar fine, effectively taking money that would otherwise go to American Investments and Jobs,” Mr Trump said on his Truth Social network.

“Very unfair, and the American taxpayer will not stand for it!” he said.

Mr Trump said the Google fine came on top of a series of other cases including that of Apple, which in 2016 was ordered by Brussels to pay Ireland back taxes totalling €13 billion (S$19.6 billion) plus interest.

“They should get their money back!” he said, adding that if not, then he would start proceedings for retaliatory tariffs to “nullify the unfair penalties”.

During the White House dinner on Sept 4, Mr Trump had congratulated Mr Pichai and Mr Brin over a US judge’s ruling earlier this week which

rejected the government’s demand

that Google sell its Chrome web browser as part of a major antitrust case. AFP