One of the European Union's two executive bodies, the European Commission (EC), continues to wage economic war against United States companies.

The EC espouses views on economic regulation at odds with common sense and with the fundamental purposes of antitrust law. Those purposes are economic efficiency and consumer welfare . The purpose of economic regulation is not to subsidize businesses that are less efficient and significantly less innovative.

On Wednesday, however, the EC told Google of its preliminary view that the company breached EU antitrust rules by distorting competition in the advertising technology industry.

The EC says Google favors its own online display advertising technology services and not providers of competing advertising technology services, advertisers, and online publishers. The EC is silent on Google’s inherent property right to conduct its business as it chooses as long as consumer welfare is promoted.

The EC is also silent on the possibility that in today’s digital world, the advertising technology industry is a natural monopoly. Scale promotes economic efficiency. It is the duty of the EC to promote the welfare of its citizens and to encourage economic efficiency which drives prosperity for all. For example, when a person shops at a grocery store, that person has no right to object to how the store displays its products. The supermarket is free to promote its store brands over branded products. The supermarket exists to make a profit, not to subsidize competitors. Profit and choice are inherent in capitalism.

The EC has already fined Google billions of dollars for other alleged violations of EC economic laws. Now the EC proposes that Google divest itself of a portion of its display advertising technology services. In effect, the EC is strangling the operations of Google in the EU.

Washington should not tolerate this blatant economic attack on American interests.

The U.S. should retaliate against the EC by imposing reciprocal sanctions on companies headquartered in the EU. The Biden administration could impose tariffs on EU-produced goods exported to the U.S. under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962. Pursuant to that act, the president can impose tariffs on imports that pose a threat to national security.

Strangling the business operations of one of America’s most successful companies, a company that employs 190,000 people and has a market value of over $1.5 trillion, is a direct economic attack on the U.S.

If the economic war against Google was not a sufficient predicate for imposing tariffs against the EU, then the European Parliament’s very recent approval of regulations on artificial intelligence is additional, clear, and convincing evidence that the EU is declaring economic war against the U.S. EU artificial intelligence regulations will stifle the development of AI.

AI is the high ground in the battle for technological and economic supremacy among the U.S., the EU, and China. AI offers the potential to double secular productivity growth in the U.S. AI could add $4 trillion to global economic output. That increased rate of productivity growth would have profound benefits for the national security of the U.S. as well as for the economic welfare of all Americans.

The administration and Congress have a duty to respond in kind against the EU.

James Rogan is a former U.S. foreign service officer who later worked in finance and law for 30 years. He writes  a daily note on finance and the economy, politics, sociology, and criminal justice.