By Yuka Hayashi

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. said Wednesday it will impose tariffs on the U.K. and five other countries in response to their taxes on U.S. technology companies -- but will suspend the levies for six months to negotiate an international resolution.

U.S. trade representative Katherine Tai said investigations determined that tariffs were justified because of digital services taxes imposed on U.S. companies by the U.K., Austria, India, Italy, Spain, Turkey.

But she said the tariffs would be suspended while the U.S. focuses on finding "a multilateral solution to a range of key issues related to international taxation."

She said the U.S. is looking to resolve the issue through Group of 20 economic powers and other international groups.

The digital services taxes affect companies such as Alphabet Inc.'s Google and Facebook Inc.

Write to Yuka Hayashi at yuka.hayashi@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

06-02-21 1119ET