VIENNA, April 3 (Reuters) - The European Union's

countermeasures in response to U.S. President Donald Trump's

universal tariffs should target Republican-led states and tech

firms so as to force him to the negotiating table, Austria's

economy minister said on Thursday.

"We have to hit Republican states and we have to hit Donald

Trump's friends, the tech companies," Wolfgang Hattmannsdorfer,

a conservative, told a news conference, adding that the EU would

have to discuss digital taxation and regulation.