Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney on Monday said trade talks with the United States have resumed after his government “rescinded its plan to tax American technology firms”.The move by Ottawa comes after US President Donald Trump on Friday suspended trade talks with the neighbouring nation over its plans to continue with its tax on US tech firms, which he called “a direct and blatant attack on our country”.
Canadian finance minister Francois-Philippe Champagne said his government anticipated “a mutually beneficial comprehensive” trade arrangement with Washington.“…Canada would rescind the Digital Services Tax (DST) in anticipation of a mutually beneficial comprehensive trade arrangement with the United States,” a government statement said, according to news agency AP.It added that Trump and Canadian PM Carney “have agreed that parties will resume negotiations with a view towards agreeing on a deal by July 21, 2025.”Trump, in a post on his social media network last Friday, said Canada had just informed the US that it was sticking to its plan to impose the digital services tax, which applies to Canadian and foreign businesses that engage with online users in Canada. The tax was set to go into effect today.On Friday, Trump came down hard on Canada over its to decision to impose a Digital Services Tax (DST) on American technology companies, calling it a “direct and blatant attack” on the United States. In a post on his social media platform Truth Social, Trump announced the immediate suspension of all trade discussions with Canada the same day.In a sharply worded statement, Trump declared that the US would soon impose tariffs on Canadian goods. “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 post warned. Canada’s digital services tax, first proposed years ago, is aimed at ensuring that large multinational tech firms, many of which are US based, pay taxes on revenues generated from Canadian users. The policy has drawn criticism from US lawmakers and trade officials who argue it disproportionately targets American companies like Google, Amazon, and Meta.
