The United States has put on hold its decision to impose tariffs on India and five other countries over their taxes on US tech companies, amid ongoing negotiations on international taxation.
The announcement from the Office of the US Trade Representative Kathrine Tai on Wednesday followed an investigation it had begun in June last year into the digital services taxes being considered or adopted by US trading partners- Austria, Brazil, Britain, the Czech Republic, the European Union, India, Indonesia, Italy, Spain and Turkey.
Ambassador Tai announced the conclusion of the one-year Section 301 investigations of Digital Service Taxes (DSTs) adopted by Austria, India, Italy, Spain, Turkey, and the United Kingdom.
The final determination in those investigations is to impose additional tariffs on certain goods from these countries, while suspending the tariffs for up to 180 days to provide additional time to complete the ongoing multilateral negotiations on international taxation at the OECD and in the G20 process.
“The United States remains committed to reaching a consensus on international tax issues through the OECD and G20 processes. Today’s actions provide time for those negotiations to continue to make progress while maintaining the option of imposing tariffs under Section 301 if warranted in the future,” the statement said.