SAO PAULO/BRASILIA, Feb 10 (Reuters) - Brazil's finance

minister rejected on Monday a report saying the country was

planning to impose taxes on U.S. tech companies if President

Donald Trump proceeds with plans to introduce a 25% tariff on

all U.S. steel imports.

"The information is not correct," Fernando Haddad wrote on

social media, after the newspaper Folha de S.Paulo reported that

President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's administration was mulling

tariffs on big tech firms as retaliation.

The South American country is one of the largest sources of

U.S. steel imports as well as a top market for many big tech

companies.

Trump said on Sunday he would introduce on Monday new 25%

tariffs on steel and aluminum imports, on top of existing metals

duties, in another escalation of his trade policy shakeup.

"The Brazilian government has made the sensible decision to

only make statements at the appropriate time and based on

concrete decisions, not on announcements that could be

misinterpreted or revised," Haddad said.

According to the Folha report, which cited an unnamed

Brazilian authority, a potential Brazilian levy could have

affected Amazon ( AMZN ), Meta Platforms' ( META ) Facebook and

Instagram, and Alphabet-owned Google.

A finance ministry official in 2024 had already floated the

idea of a potential tax on big tech companies to meet fiscal

targets in case there was a government revenue shortfall this

year.