TechCentralTechCentral
    Facebook Twitter YouTube LinkedIn
    Facebook Twitter LinkedIn YouTube
    TechCentral TechCentral
    NEWSLETTER
    • News

      Protests break out at Eskom plants

      23 June 2022

      South Africa scraps public mask mandate

      23 June 2022

      Crypto is not too big to fail

      23 June 2022

      The great crypto crash: the fallout, and what happens next

      22 June 2022

      Winter 1, Eskom 0

      22 June 2022
    • World

      Crypto crash survivors could become ‘tomorrow’s Amazons’

      23 June 2022

      Tether to launch a stablecoin tied to the British pound

      22 June 2022

      Tech giants form metaverse standards body, without Apple

      22 June 2022

      There are still unresolved matters in Twitter deal, Musk says

      21 June 2022

      5G subscriptions to top one billion in 2022: Ericsson

      21 June 2022
    • In-depth

      Goodbye, Internet Explorer – you really won’t be missed

      19 June 2022

      Oracle’s database dominance threatened by rise of cloud-first rivals

      13 June 2022

      Everything Apple announced at WWDC – in less than 500 words

      7 June 2022

      Sheryl Sandberg’s ad empire leaves a complicated legacy

      2 June 2022

      Tulipmania meets the real economy at WhatsApp speed

      30 May 2022
    • Podcasts

      How your organisation can triage its information security risk

      22 June 2022

      Everything PC S01E06 – ‘Apple Silicon’

      15 June 2022

      The youth might just save us

      15 June 2022

      Everything PC S01E05 – ‘Nvidia: The Green Goblin’

      8 June 2022

      Everything PC S01E04 – ‘The story of Intel – part 2’

      1 June 2022
    • Opinion

      Has South Africa’s advertising industry lost its way?

      21 June 2022

      Rob Lith: What Icasa’s spectrum auction means for SA companies

      13 June 2022

      A proposed solution to crypto’s stablecoin problem

      19 May 2022

      From spectrum to roads, why fixing SA’s problems is an uphill battle

      19 April 2022

      How AI is being deployed in the fight against cybercriminals

      8 April 2022
    • Company Hubs
      • 1-grid
      • Altron Document Solutions
      • Amplitude
      • Atvance Intellect
      • Axiz
      • BOATech
      • CallMiner
      • Digital Generation
      • E4
      • ESET
      • Euphoria Telecom
      • IBM
      • Kyocera Document Solutions
      • Microsoft
      • Nutanix
      • One Trust
      • Pinnacle
      • Skybox Security
      • SkyWire
      • Tarsus on Demand
      • Videri Digital
      • Zendesk
    • Sections
      • Banking
      • Broadcasting and Media
      • Cloud computing
      • Consumer electronics
      • Cryptocurrencies
      • Education and skills
      • Energy
      • Fintech
      • Information security
      • Internet and connectivity
      • Internet of Things
      • Investment
      • IT services
      • Motoring and transport
      • Public sector
      • Science
      • Social media
      • Talent and leadership
      • Telecoms
    • Advertise
    TechCentralTechCentral
    Home»World»Trump renews assault on Amazon

    Trump renews assault on Amazon

    World By Agency Staff6 April 2018
    Facebook Twitter LinkedIn WhatsApp Telegram Email
    An Amazon fulfilment centre in the US

    US President Donald Trump said he will take a “very serious look” at Amazon.com and what he said is an “uneven playing field” the retailer enjoys against competitors.

    “I’m going to study it and take a look,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on Thursday. “We’re going to take a very serious look at that.”

    Trump aides said earlier in the week that the White House wasn’t preparing punitive measures toward Amazon, but it wasn’t immediately clear whether the president’s comments indicated a potential shift.

    Amazon was little changed in extended trading, dropping 0.1% to US$1 451.75 at 5.43pm in New York. While Trump’s broadsides against the company battered the stock last week and into Monday, investors have shrugged off his latest assaults and sent the shares up each of the past three days.

    The post office is not doing well with Amazon that I can tell you. The playing field has to be level for everybody

    Trump has fired off a barrage of criticism against Amazon and CEO Jeff Bezos in Twitter postings since last week, sinking the Seattle-based Internet retailer’s market value by as much as $55bn at one point. Trump has argued the company receives favorable treatment on taxes and postal rates.

    “You look at the sales tax situation which is going to be taken up I guess very soon, there’s going to be a decision from the supreme court,” Trump told reporters on Thursday. “So we’ll see what happens. The post office is not doing well with Amazon that I can tell you.

    “The playing field has to be level for everybody,” he said as he returned from a trip to West Virginia.

    Amazon collects sales tax in every state that has one. But Amazon’s policies don’t apply to third-party merchants selling goods through its website, and many of those transactions remain untaxed. Such sales make up about half of the company’s volume. Amazon has said it’s up to the sellers to collect any taxes and many don’t.

    The Trump administration has urged the US supreme court to let state and local governments collect billions of dollars in sales taxes from online retailers. The justices are scheduled to hear arguments next month centring on a South Dakota law that calls for collecting sales taxes from large Internet retailers even if they don’t have brick-and-mortar stores in the state. A ruling is expected by late June.

    Confidential

    While its contract with Amazon is confidential, the Postal Service has argued that its e-commerce services benefit the organisation and its mail customers. It is legally prohibited from charging shippers less than its delivery costs. Further, taxpayers don’t directly support the Postal Service’s operations.

    Amazon regularly uses the Postal Service to complete what’s called the “last mile” of delivery, with letter carriers dropping off packages at some 150m residences and businesses daily. The company has a network of 35 “sort centres” where customer packages are sorted by postal code, stacked on pallets and delivered to post offices for the final leg of delivery.

    The company remains exposed to government action on other fronts.

    Donald Trump

    The US justice department or Federal Trade Commission could open antitrust or consumer protection investigations. The company is also competing for a multibillion-dollar contract to provide cloud computing services to the Pentagon.

    Safra Catz, the CEO of Oracle, one of Amazon’s rivals for the defence department contract, criticised the bidding process in a private dinner with Trump on Tuesday, complaining that it favoured Amazon, people familiar with the plans said.

    Trump heard her out and said he wants the contract competition to be fair, but made no indication he’d interfere in the bidding, the people said. White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said on Wednesday that Trump isn’t interfering in the contract decision.  — Reported by Jennifer Epstein, (c) 2018 Bloomberg LP

    Amazon Donald Trump Jeff Bezos Oracle Safra Catz
    Share. Facebook Twitter LinkedIn WhatsApp Telegram Email
    Previous ArticleMeet the CEO: Cell C’s Jose Dos Santos
    Next Article Interview: Lepsta CEO Sithembiso Khumalo

    Related Posts

    Crypto crash survivors could become ‘tomorrow’s Amazons’

    23 June 2022

    Tether to launch a stablecoin tied to the British pound

    22 June 2022

    Tech giants form metaverse standards body, without Apple

    22 June 2022
    Add A Comment

    Comments are closed.

    Promoted

    Huawei P50 now available for pre-order in South Africa

    23 June 2022

    Calabrio paves way for SA’s cloud contact centre WFO journey alongside AWS

    23 June 2022

    More than card machines – iKhokha diversifies to reach more SMEs

    22 June 2022
    Opinion

    Has South Africa’s advertising industry lost its way?

    21 June 2022

    Rob Lith: What Icasa’s spectrum auction means for SA companies

    13 June 2022

    A proposed solution to crypto’s stablecoin problem

    19 May 2022

    Subscribe to Updates

    Get the best South African technology news and analysis delivered to your e-mail inbox every morning.

    © 2009 - 2022 NewsCentral Media

    Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.