The trade deal between the European Union and the United States will “have to be reviewed” if the U.S. is serious about its demands for the EU to deregulate its tech sector, the EU industry chief Stéphane Séjourné said on Wednesday.
Late on Monday, U.S. President Donald Trump threatened to impose tariffs on countries with regulatory or tax burdens on American tech companies.
The Trump White House has been pushing the EU to drop some of these policies since it took office. But their exclusion from the trade deal, a joint statement on which was released last week, was celebrated as a win by the European Commission.
But Trump isn’t done, his latest salvo shows.
At a conference organized by France’s largest employers’ association, MEDEF, Séjourné was asked whether the deal would still stand if the U.S. continued to pursue this line on digital policy.
“For now, I have heard intentions, not declarations. If the intentions turn into declarations, this [trade deal] will have to be reviewed,” Séjourné replied.
