Trump is now threatening retaliation over EU tech rules, shaking the bloc’s 15% tariff deal. While there's no EU-wide tax on digital services, seven EU states have so far introduced national levies, including France, Italy, and Spain. The annual £800 million ($1.08 billion, €900 million) that the tax generates were a sore point in recent US-UK trade talks. "They may be willing to negotiate over the [digital] taxes, but knowing Trump, he will initially adopt a hardline position." He noted how the threat of a 3% EU digital service tax, which would hurt US tech giants the hardest, was used as leverage in trade talks earlier this year, but was later shelved.