America seems to be staring at another rocky relationship with the European Union. In a social media post, US officials slammed the European Union for discriminating against American technology companies and threatened to penalize European tech companies in return. The post comes from the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTP). For those unaware, USTR stands for the Office of the United States Trade Representative, a US government agency within the Executive Office of the President, responsible for advising the President and developing/implementing U.S. international trade policy, negotiating trade agreements, and resolving trade disputes. In the post, US officials have complained that the EU has not walked back broader regulation of company business practices while also proceeding with investigations of major American technology companies such as Google, Twitter, Apple, Amazon and Meta. The post specifically names certain European companies that it said enjoy access to the huge American market without any restrictions whatsoever. The European companies that face America ire include: Accenture, Amadeus, Capgemini, DHL, Mistral, Publicis, SAP, Siemens and Spotify.
USTR’s complete post targetting EU
USTR’s long post blamed EU of “persisted in a continuing course of discriminatory and harassing lawsuits, taxes, fines and directives” against American companies. It singled out potential European service providers that could be targeted by name. Here’s the complete post:“The European Union and certain EU Member States have persisted in a continuing course of discriminatory and harassing lawsuits, taxes, fines, and directives against U.S. service providers. U.S. services companies provide substantial free services to EU citizens and reliable enterprise services to EU companies, and they support millions of jobs and more than $100 billion in direct investment in Europe. The United States has raised concerns with the EU for years on these matters without meaningful engagement or basic acknowledgement of U.S. concerns.In stark contrast, EU service providers have been able to operate freely in the United States for decades, benefitting from access to our market and consumers on a level playing field. Some of the largest EU service providers that have hitherto enjoyed this expansive market access include, among others:— Accenture— Amadeus— Capgemini— DHL— Mistral— Publicis— SAP— Siemens— SpotifyIf the EU and EU Member States insist on continuing to restrict, limit, and deter the competitiveness of U.S. service providers through discriminatory means, the United States will have no choice but to begin using every tool at its disposal to counter these unreasonable measures. Should responsive measures be necessary, U. law permits the assessment of fees or restrictions on foreign services, among other actions. The United States will take a similar approach to other countries that pursue an EU-style strategy in this area.”
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