NEW YORK, 6 April, 2021, (TON): The U.S. is pressing ahead with plans to hit six nations that tax Internet-based companies with retaliatory tariffs that could total almost $1 billion annually. 

The move will hit six nations including India.  

The six countries are Austria, Spain, Turkey, UK, Italy and India. 
Goods entering the U.S. -- ranging from Austrian grand pianos and British merry-go-rounds to Turkish Kilim rugs and Italian anchovies -- could face tariffs of as much as 25% annually, documents published by the U.S. Trade Representative show.  

The duties are in response to countries that are imposing taxes on technology firms that operate internationally such as Amazon.com Inc. and Facebook Inc. In each of the six cases, the USTR proposes to impose tariffs that would roughly total the amount of tax revenue each country is expected to get from the U.S. companies.  

The Internet Association, whose members include Amazon, Facebook and Alphabet Inc.’s Google, welcomed the USTR’s move.  

The USTR’s action “is an important affirmation in pushing back on these discriminatory trade barriers as the US continues to work to find a viable solution at the OECD,” the group said in a statement. 

There have been efforts to replace each individual country’s digital taxes with one global standard to be brokered by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development but a deal has yet to be reached.  
The proposal is a key pillar of President Joe Biden’s $2 trillion infrastructure spending plan, which calls for an increase in the U.S. corporate tax rate to 28% while eliminating some deductions associated with overseas profits  

Without a global minimum, the US would again have higher rates than a number of other major economies.