President Donald Trump announced on Friday that the United States is “terminating ALL discussions on Trade with Canada,” following Ottawa’s announcement to implement a digital services tax aimed at American technology companies.
The announcement, shared on Truth Social, criticized Canada for adopting what Trump characterized as an “egregious” tax, which he claims mirrors a similar move by the European Union.
In his post, Trump stated, “We will let Canada know the Tariff that they will be paying to do business with the United States of America within the next seven day period.”
The complete message from Trump noted, “We have just been informed that Canada, a very difficult Country to TRADE with, including the fact that they have charged our Farmers as much as 400% Tariffs, for years, on Dairy Products, has just announced that they are putting a Digital Services Tax on our American Technology Companies, which is a direct and blatant attack on our Country. They are obviously copying the European Union, which has done the same thing, and is currently under discussion with us, also. Based on this egregious Tax, we are hereby terminating ALL discussions on Trade with Canada, effective immediately. We will let Canada know the Tariff that they will be paying to do business with the United States of America within the next seven day period. Thank you for your attention to this matter!”
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney’s office has yet to respond to requests for comment from Finance Newso regarding the situation.
Trump’s declaration poses significant risks to the trade relationship between the U.S. and Canada, two nations that have historically been among each other’s top trading partners.
In the previous year, trade in goods between the U.S. and Canada was valued at approximately $762 billion, as reported by the office of the U.S. trade representative.
The first payments from Canada’s digital services tax, which was enacted last year and is retroactive to 2022, are set to start being collected on Monday. This levy will impact both domestic and international technology firms, with major U.S. companies such as Amazon, Google, and Meta being among those affected.
Despite U.S. opposition, Canadian officials announced earlier this month they would not suspend the tax.
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