Archive: https://archive.is/2025.03.10-195341/https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-03-10/us-says-will-retaliate-if-poland-introduces-tax-on-big-tech

Poland will face consequences if it introduces a levy on large technology companies, the incoming US envoy to Warsaw warned on Monday, as the spat between the two allies escalated.

The government seeks to present a model to collect taxes from the so-called Big Tech firms in the coming months, Digitization Minister Krzysztof Gawkowski was reported as saying by PAP newswire on Monday. Tom Rose, whom President Donald Trump appointed as US next ambassador in Poland, called the plan “not very smart” in a post on social media platform X.

Rose said that the new tax would hurt the relations between the two countries and the US president would “reciprocate as well he should.”

The response comes a day after Poland’s Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski clashed with Elon Musk on the X platform over Starlink satellite-internet system for Ukraine and was also accused by the US Secretary of State Marco Rubio of “making things up.”

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[–] 42 points 2 years ago (23 children)

what is donald trump trying to achieve again? i don't get it

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  • [–] 20 points 2 years ago (9 children)
  • [–] 4 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (8 children)

    for what purpose? prices have been lower and standard of living higher than anywhere else in the world because of the trade imbalances. unemployment is low unless you're in tech. i don't understand what is meant to be achieved by any of this

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  • [–] 5 points 2 years ago (6 children)

    According to Yanis Varoufakis, to end the tade imbalances so that the US don't lose their production capabilities

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  • [–] 4 points 2 years ago (3 children)

    the low prices and high standard of living are due to the manufacturing being outsourced. i don't understand what the end goal of boosting production capabilities is

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  • [–] 5 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    i don't understand what the end goal of boosting production capabilities is

    Wartime manufacturing capacity would be my guess. Probably an element of self sufficiency too.

    Shipbuilding capacity is just a fraction of China's now for example. Same goes for electronics.

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  • [–] 4 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    I saw that, but surely if you wanted to protect US industrial base you’d be much more targeted about it? Unless the point is to create uncertainty and devalue the dollar that way.

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  • [–] [S] 9 points 2 years ago (6 children)

    Protecting interests of American businesses, possibly ideological although bribery could be involved too. Trump has been consistent on tariffs for nearly 50 years so it’s safe to assume it’s one of his few core beliefs that’s not as easily affected by his other personality issues.

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  • [–] 6 points 2 years ago* (5 children)

    American Business is modelled on importing and outsourcing. I don't understand how this protects business interests

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  • [–] 4 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    You’re right and this disregard for the old system is making me nervous. These moves are so economically unsound that I can only draw the conclusion that the old neo-liberal business interests are not a concern anymore. If America tanks its importing and outsourcing model, what will it be replaced with? I’m not confident there’s a plan here (other than isolation and destruction).

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  • [–] [S] 3 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    Taxes make companies earn less money. Trump tries to dissuade Poland from taxing American companies using threat of tariffs. I’m not sure how to put it in easier terms.

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  • [+] 1 point 2 years ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 child)
  • [–] [S] 1 point 2 years ago*

    I need you to make it less simple because you’re glossing over the details. Walk me through how tariffs on polish sausages (or whatever product/industry you think is adequate) will affect American business. This is not a symmetrical relationship between US and Poland and we don’t trade as much as most think.

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  • [–] 6 points 2 years ago

    In Trump's syphilitic brain, "Making America Great Again", means every other country with the exception of Russia and China, bends the knee and does what America wants, no questions asked. To him, THAT is power. He's too stupid to comprehend the concept of soft power and his diplomatic intelligence amounts only to trying to force others to be nothing more than client states.

    This is just bullying tactics to try to make them do that. With the added benefit of destabilizing the west for Putin's benefit.

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