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 the next US ambassador in Poland, called the plan “not very smart” in a post on social media platform X.
Rose said the new tax would hurt 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.”
Poland and the US have been working closely together on helping Ukraine, which led to a bigger business cooperation between the two countries. Poland has recently increased arms purchases from the US, the American companies were picked to build Poland’s first nuclear power plant. Alphabet Inc. and Microsoft Corp. are set to boost their investments in the country.