How potential digital services tariffs can give nations leverage at COP30 this week as they grapple with Mr Trump’s climate change

Opinion by Mathew Carr

Nov. 18-19, 2025 — Nations should use World Trade Organization negotiations in March over whether digital services taxes and tariffs should be allowed to force US President Donald Trump to the negotiation table in Belem, Brazil on climate action.

The USA is exploiting the world’s climate by ramping up its production of oil and natural gas. That’s similar to its exploitation of unfair trade and tax rules that prevent fair contributions by the extremely lucrative digital-services industry. That lucrative industry is also damaging kids’ mental health and kind of turned us all into surveilled slaves.

Physical retailers paying fair taxes have been pummelled, especially small ones.

The global trade and tax systems were built for a 20th-century world of goods, not a 21st-century world of data and services. 

And because the U.S. is home to most of the dominant digital firms, it has every incentive to exploit that gap.

Digitally delivered services were about 54% of global exports in 2023, according to the International Chamber of Commerce, citing IMF/OECD data. That trade group is arguing that the likes of Alphabet and Meta still need protecting, framing it like this: Continuing the moratorium would protect small business. https://iccwbo.org/global-insights/global-trade/multilateral-trade-wto/wto-e-commerce-moratorium/

Protecting huge tech and media groups

Actually, the lack of digital services tariffs and taxes mainly protects huge tech and corporate media groups, AI companies, computer chip behemoths and social media companies, who have stolen privacy and copyrighted material while not paying their fair share. Nvidia’s earnings report is to be released tomorrow, Wednesday after the shares of the chipmaker fell today.

The WTO Moratorium on Customs Duties on Electronic Transmissions has been in place since 1998.

Here’s how the two-pronged* exploitation has played out:

The trade rules still treat “digital” as intangible — and thus “nowhere”. 

This is similar to greenhouse gas emissions. The USA is pretending that because its emissions are invisible, the damage is “nowhere,” and yet, it’s everywhere.

Under current WTO trade law, tariffs apply to goods crossing borders. “Services” (like streaming, search, cloud, AI services or advertising algorithms) fall under the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS), which doesn’t allow customs duties. 

And under OECD tax treaties that Trump has torpedoed, profit is taxed where a company has a physical presence — factories, offices, or staff — not where its users are.

For purposes of tax and tariffs, countries are allowed to discriminate on goods (eg German cars), but not on digital services. 

Unfair

That’s unfair and so about 18 countries including the UK and Tanzania have already deployed digital services taxes (taxfoundation.org).

Like its plan to pull out of the Paris climate deal in January, the U.S. position on digital services tax /tariffs is pure self-interest.

Other nations can argue in Belem that they will impose tariffs on digital services revenue unless Mr Trump rejoins the climate negotiations properly. Mr Trump shouldn’t be allowed to cherry pick, as he accuses the BBC of doing.

A widespread or global digital-service tax/tariff regime could help make local and national e-commerce thrive and it would also help underpin the multipolar world instead of one dominated by US tech giants.

It would provide resources for countries to deal with mental health problems related to doom scrolling, pornography and propaganda, as well as copyright and privacy theft.

This is the Wild West.
Not free speech. pic.twitter.com/aPQyi9O482

— Emmanuel Macron (@EmmanuelMacron) November 18, 2025

Taking this Trump-like stance in the climate negotiations during the next few days could be the impulse that gets America to finally shift away from its climate inaction.

Mr Trump loves to speak about America’s trade deficit, yet I’ve not heard him mention that the USA delivered $596 billion more services to the world than other nations delivered to the US last year. That’s a huge surplus and about 60% of it is digital services, or $358 billion.

The total “international” services supplied to foreigners through overseas affiliates of US companies was $2.1 trillion last year (Dept of Commerce see attached), to put the surplus in perspective. A tariff/taxes of 18%, the average US import tariff at the moment, on that figure would raise $378 billion from the US alone. 

The G20 is meeting Nov. 22, 23 and the US is threatening to skip those discussions, immediately after it has downplayed the Belem talks due to finish this week. The UNFCCC discussions will probably overrun and overlap with the G20.

Then, there’s the delayed UK budget, perhaps put back until Nov. 26, because of these wider negotiations on climate and trade. A strategy to distract the media with pre-budget speculation instead of report COP30 properly. The UK media is so gullible.

As of that day, there’s exactly four months until the WTO e-commerce negotiations, a multilateral process that America is also famously shunning. That is still close enough to pressure Trump and his “second team” of negotiators in Belem this week. (They probably know what they’re doing)

This is an historic opportunity. The world has more leverage than it seems to think it does.

Mr Trump would do well to remember the old saying: If you are not at the negotiation table, you are on it. So the world is right now in a decent position to summon its inner Trump for the courage to show America it means business, instead of somewhat cowering in the corner.

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*Climate negotiators could go into the CIA regime changes, violence and warmongering, too, if they want; also America’s financial services, middle man and insurance ripoffs.

NOTES

‘Woke lawfare’ to stir stealth US carbon price?: a test of judges’ loyalties to President Trump (1)

ICC COULD HAVE NAMED THIS DOCUMENT — Practical difficulties in maintaining the world’s humanity … how many humans are mentioned?