President Donald Trump abruptly announced on Friday that he was ending trade talks with Canada, while also objecting to the country’s new digital services tax, which is set to take effect from Monday, according to the latest reports.
“Based on this egregious Tax, we are hereby terminating ALL discussions on Trade with Canada, effective immediately,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social network. “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.”
His entire post on Truth Social read,”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!”
Only Last week, Canada’s finance minister stated that he would not delay implementation of their country’s digital services tax even as US trade talks continue. Any firm that makes more than $15 million off of Canadian internet users is subject to a 3% tax, as per reports by NBC.
Canada is the second-biggest trading partner of the United States. Right now, the U.S. charges a 25% tax on most goods imported from Canada that aren’t covered by the USMCA trade deal. However, energy products like oil and gas have a lower 10% tax. Canada is also hit hard by the U.S.’s 50% tax on steel and aluminum imports-it’s the top foreign supplier of these metals to America.