Thought Leadership
US President Donald Trump is serious about car tariffs. How could Europe defend itself against this? The German Foreign Minister sees a possibility with software updates for cell phones.
In response to higher US tariffs, Green politician Annalena Baerbock has brought a levy on software updates for smartphones into play. “If others put up a figure of 25 percent like today, then we can put up our entire toolbox,” said the Acting Foreign Minister at a European conference in Berlin. “How often do we update our iPhone? Ten cents on it – that would bring in a lot of money for Europe, but others might not like it so much.”
Baerbock was referring to US President Donald Trump’s announcement that he would impose additional tariffs of 25 percent on all car imports from the beginning of April. The minister was quoted by the “Tagesspiegel” newspaper. The newspaper had organized the “Europe 2025” conference together with “Die Zeit”, “Handelsblatt” and “Wirtschaftswoche”.
Baerbock pointed out the possibilities of the EU law on digital services: “We have the Digital Services Act (DSA), and it is powerful,” said the minister. The DSA measures were “actually planned in response to another major world power”. However, they could also be applied to the US digital economy, such as the cell phone manufacturer Apple.
dpa
