On June 2, 2021, United States Trade Representative (USTR) Katherine Tai announced the conclusion of the Section 301 Digital Services Taxes (DSTs) investigations on Austria, India, Italy, Spain, Turkey, and the United Kingdom. The investigation determined to impose additional tariffs of 25 percent on certain products from the six countries, as noted in the Notices of Action below:

Notably, USTR also determined to suspend the application of the additional duties for up to 180 days in order to provide more time to complete ongoing multilateral negotiations pertaining to international taxation issues through the OECD and G20 processes.

This decision comes a year after USTR first initiated investigations into DSTs in the six jurisdictions as well as four others—which included Brazil, the Czech Republic, the European Union, and Indonesia. In January 2021, USTR determined that the DSTs adopted by Austria, India, Italy, Spain, Turkey, and the United Kingdom both discriminated and burdened U.S. companies and were not in line with international taxation principles. Two months later in March 2021, USTR announced proposed trade actions in the six countries as well as the termination of the remaining four investigations in Brazil, the Czech Republic, the European Union, and Indonesia, where they were found to have not implemented the DSTs under consideration.

The Press Release is available here.

For more information on Section 301 investigations, contact our team and see previous posts below.

USTR Launches Section 301 Investigation Targeting Imports from Vietnam | International Trade Law (cmtradelaw.com)

USTR Launches 301 Investigations into Digital Services Taxes | International Trade Law (cmtradelaw.com)

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Photo of John Brew John Brew

John Brew is the co-chair of Crowell & Moring’s International Trade Group and a partner in the firm’s Washington, D.C. office. He has extensive experience in import and export trade regulation, and he regularly advises corporations, trade associations, foreign governments, and non-governmental organizations…

John Brew is the co-chair of Crowell & Moring’s International Trade Group and a partner in the firm’s Washington, D.C. office. He has extensive experience in import and export trade regulation, and he regularly advises corporations, trade associations, foreign governments, and non-governmental organizations on matters involving customs administration, enforcement, compliance, litigation, legislation and policy.

John represents clients in proceedings at the administrative and judicial levels, as well as before Congress and the international bureaucracies that handle customs and trade matters. He advises clients on all substantive import regulatory issues handled by U.S. Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement, such as classification, valuation, origin, marking, tariff preference programs, other agency regulations, admissibility, import restrictions, quotas, drawback, audits, prior disclosures, penalties, investigations, Importer Self Assessment and Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism programs, importations under bond, the Jones Act, vessel repairs, and foreign trade zone matters.

Photo of Frances P. Hadfield Frances P. Hadfield

Frances P. Hadfield is a counsel in Crowell & Moring’s International Trade Group in the firm’s New York office. Her practice focuses on forced labor and withhold release orders (WRO), import regulatory compliance, and customs litigation. She regularly advises corporations on matters involving…

Frances P. Hadfield is a counsel in Crowell & Moring’s International Trade Group in the firm’s New York office. Her practice focuses on forced labor and withhold release orders (WRO), import regulatory compliance, and customs litigation. She regularly advises corporations on matters involving customs compliance, audits, customs enforcement, as well as import penalties.

Frances represents clients before the U.S. Court of International Trade and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, as well as in proceedings at the administrative level. She advises corporations on both substantive federal and state regulatory issues that involve U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the Federal Trade Commission, Food and Drug Administration, and U.S. Fish & Wildlife in matters pertaining to product admissibility, audits, classification, import restrictions, investigations, marking, licenses, origin, penalties, and tariff preference programs.

Photo of Martín Yerovi Martín Yerovi

Martín Yerovi is an international trade analyst in Crowell & Moring’s Washington, D.C. office. He provides practice support to the International Trade Group on import regulatory matters pending before the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) and U.S. Customs and Border Protection…

Martín Yerovi is an international trade analyst in Crowell & Moring’s Washington, D.C. office. He provides practice support to the International Trade Group on import regulatory matters pending before the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP). He works closely with attorneys developing courses of action for clients impacted by investigations under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 and Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962. He also supports unfair trade investigations, including antidumping (AD) and countervailing duty (CVD) investigations, sunset reviews, and changed circumstance reviews before the Department of Commerce and the International Trade Commission (ITC).