Brussels is sending a clear signal to Washington that Europe’s digital sovereignty will not be a currency in transatlantic trade negotiations. The firm declaration by Teresa Ribera, vice-president of the European Commission, puts a definitive end to attempts to link customs policy with technological compliance. This is a direct response to Monday’s suggestion by Howard Lutnick, the US Secretary of Commerce, to cut tariffs on steel and aluminium imports in exchange for ‘balancing’ EU restrictions on the technology sector.
The US administration’s attempt to tie the raw ‘old economy’ to digital regulation shows how acute the framework set by the Digital Markets Act (DMA) and the Digital Services Act (DSA) has become for Silicon Valley giants. Lutnick, in an effort to force concessions, attempted to shift the burden of discussion from the level of legal protection to the purely transactional level. Ribera, however, immediately closed this gateway, emphasising that the European legal framework is about protecting consumers and ensuring fair competition, not protectionism that can be traded.
For the channel market and the IT industry in Europe, this exchange of views carries a key message: the implementation period of stringent requirements will not be relaxed by geopolitical pressure. The European Union intends to defend its regulatory model regardless of the costs in other sectors of the economy. Technology integrators and distributors must therefore prepare themselves for the fact that the current demanding regulatory landscape is a permanent feature of the market game and not a temporary political inconvenience.
