UK says to proceed with digital tax despite US threat

Britain's planned digital tax on tech giants will proceed as planned from April, UK finance minister Sajid Javid insisted Wednesday despite US threats of retaliatory tariffs.

"We plan to go ahead with our digital services tax in April," Javid said at the Davos economic summit, as US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin warned that Washington would look to retaliate with a tariff on EU auto imports.

Javid described Britain's tax, seen as targeting especially US giants such as Amazon, Google and Facebook, as "proportionate" and "temporary".

Addressing the annual World Economic Forum, he added: "It will fall away once there is an international solution."
Also speaking in Davos on Wednesday, Mnuchin said: "If people want to arbitrarily put taxes on our digital companies we will consider putting taxes arbitrarily on car companies."