By Staff, Agencies

US President Donald Trump has warned that the European Union will face a “very big price” after Brussels imposed a $1 billion fine on US technology giant Google.

The European Commission announced on Thursday that it had fined Google a total of $1 billion for violating the bloc’s fair competition rules.

Responding on his Truth Social platform, Trump condemned the decision and accused the EU of unfairly targeting Google and other major US technology companies.

“The United States of America is not a ‘PIGGYBANK’ for Europe, nor will we allow it to be!” Trump wrote.

He added that the European Union would “pay a very big price for this illegal and highly unethical conduct,” arguing that the penalties imposed on Google should be “entirely reversed.”

Trump also announced that his administration would launch a Section 301 trade investigation into the European Union, accusing European regulators of “robbing American companies and, in turn, the American taxpayer.” He said the investigation could lead to the imposition of “substantial” tariffs on EU goods.

On the same day, the Trump administration introduced new tariffs on imports from dozens of trading partners, including the European Union.

The administration imposed tariffs of 10% and 12.5% on goods from 60 economies, alleging they had failed to adequately enforce bans on products made with forced labor.

According to the White House, the action was taken under Section 301 of the US Trade Act of 1974, with the administration claiming the affected economies had failed “to impose and effectively enforce a prohibition on the importation of goods produced with forced labor.”

European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas rejected the allegations, saying the claims about shortcomings in the bloc’s labor standards were without merit.

Speaking to British media on the sidelines of the ASEAN summit in Manila, Philippines, Kallas said, “You can’t say that for the European Union.”

“If you compare our labor laws to the ones of the United States, I mean, we have paid vacations, we have very good labor conditions for our employees, so it’s not really grounded,” she added.