{"id":2330,"date":"2026-06-18T06:38:36","date_gmt":"2026-06-18T06:38:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/metrotransitreview.com\/?p=2330"},"modified":"2026-06-18T06:38:36","modified_gmt":"2026-06-18T06:38:36","slug":"europe-is-crippling-its-own-economies-far-more-than-any-trump-tariff-could","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/metrotransitreview.com\/?p=2330","title":{"rendered":"Europe is crippling its own economies far more than any Trump tariff could"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

French President Emmanuel Macron is wrong to laugh off President Donald Trump\u2019s latest threat to slap a 100% tariff on French wine and champagne if Paris doesn\u2019t nix its 3% \u201cdigital tax\u201d on top tech companies \u2014 and not just because it angers Washington.<\/p>\n

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The French figure it\u2019s a clever way to ding those annoying American tech bros \u2014 the French openly<\/em> call it the \u201cGAFAM tax\u201d because it slams Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon and Microsoft.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s what it was designed<\/em> to do, by targeting companies with sales of at least $860 million worldwide and $28 million in France \u2014 levels no European<\/em> tech firm comes close to hitting.<\/p>\n

Which is to say: The Europeans have<\/em> no tech sector, which makes a joke of the France\u2019s supposed goal of \u201ctech sovereignty\u201d (that is, independence of foreign firms), the excuse for passing GAFAM back in 2019.<\/p>\n

Nor is this the only way European Union countries milk US tech firms: The EU collects more from fines<\/em> on those US companies than from taxing all EU public tech firms combined.<\/p>\n

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Those fines are for not bending to the EU\u2019s Digital Services Act and Digital Markets Act, which impose censorship mandates and other controls fundamentally antithetical to the tech culture.<\/p>\n

All this \u2014 the crippling regulation, the predatory taxation \u2014 explains why European tech never gets off the ground, and indeed that most EU economies haven\u2019t grown at all<\/em> in the 21st century.<\/p>\n

Macron and his allies sniff at Trump\u2019s tariffs as banes on the global economy, but what\u2019s actually strangling their economies are their own more<\/em>-backward policies.<\/p>\n

Read more Iran deal tosses a tremendous cash lifeline to terrorist regime<\/a><\/p>\n

The joke\u2019s on them.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Europeans have no tech sector, which makes a joke of France\u2019s supposed goal of \u201ctech sovereignty.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2329,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2330","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinion"],"yoast_head":"\nEurope is crippling its own economies far more than any Trump tariff could - Metro Transit Review<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/metrotransitreview.com\/?p=2330\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Europe is crippling its own economies far more than any Trump tariff could - Metro Transit Review\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Europeans have no tech sector, which makes a joke of France\u2019s supposed goal of \u201ctech sovereignty.\u201d\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/metrotransitreview.com\/?p=2330\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Metro Transit Review\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-06-18T06:38:36+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/metrotransitreview.com\\\/?p=2330#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/metrotransitreview.com\\\/?p=2330\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/metrotransitreview.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/7cd7bd9683106710eed62ba5da559b14\"},\"headline\":\"Europe is crippling its own economies far more than any Trump tariff could\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-06-18T06:38:36+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/metrotransitreview.com\\\/?p=2330\"},\"wordCount\":328,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/metrotransitreview.com\\\/?p=2330#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/metrotransitreview.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/06\\\/faddc1c565a78fed61358bcc63b16c23.webp\",\"articleSection\":[\"Opinion\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/metrotransitreview.com\\\/?p=2330#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/metrotransitreview.com\\\/?p=2330\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/metrotransitreview.com\\\/?p=2330\",\"name\":\"Europe is crippling its own economies far more than any Trump tariff could - 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