US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said that the EU needs to resolve some “internal matters” before entering trade negotiations with the US, with particular reference to the digital services tax levied by some countries. “We are in negotiations with many different stakeholders,” Bessent said at a briefing at the White House on Tuesday. “Some European countries have levied unfair taxes on the US on digital services.” He pointed out that the US has long opposed foreign digital services taxes, and successive administrations have argued that this tax unfairly targets US tech giants such as Amazon and Google's parent company Alphabet Inc. Besant also made special mention of France and Italy on Tuesday.

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said that the EU needs to resolve some “internal matters” before entering trade negotiations with the US, with particular reference to the digital services tax levied by some countries. “We are in negotiations with many different stakeholders,” Bessent said at a briefing at the White House on Tuesday. “Some European countries have levied unfair taxes on the US on digital services.” He pointed out that the US has long opposed foreign digital services taxes, and successive administrations have argued that this tax unfairly targets US tech giants such as Amazon and Google's parent company Alphabet Inc. Besant also made special mention of France and Italy on Tuesday.