Washington (AP) – President Donald Trump said on Friday that he was hanging Trade discussions with Canada On his plans to continue his tax on technological companies, which he called “a direct and obvious attack against our country”.
Trump, in an article on its social media network, said Canada had just informed the United States that it was planning to impose the digital services tax, which applies to Canadian and foreign companies that engage with online users in Canada. The tax should come into force on Monday.
“Based on this blatant tax, we put an end to all discussions on trade with Canada, with immediate effect. We will get to know the price they will pay to do business with the United States of America in the next seven days,” Trump said in his post.
Trump’s announcement was the last swerve in The trade war It has been launched since its entry into office for a second term in January. Progress with Canada has been roller coaster, starting with the American president who pushes to the neighbor of the north of the country and on several occasions that he would be absorbed as An American state.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said on Friday that his country “would continue to carry out these complex negotiations in the best interests of Canadians. It is a negotiation ”.
Trump later said that he expects Canada to remove the tax.
“Economically, we have such power over Canada. We prefer not to use it,” Trump said in the oval office. “It won’t work well for Canada. They were stupid to do so. ”
When asked if Canada could do anything to restart talks, he suggested that Canada could delete the tax, predicted that it will be done but said: “It doesn’t matter to me.”
Carney Visited Trump In May at the White House, where he was polite but firm. Trump last week went to Canada to The G7 summit In Alberta, where Carney said that Canada and the United States had set a 30-day deadline for commercial negotiations.
Digital services tax will hit companies, including Amazon, Google, Meta, Uber and Airbnb, with a 3% levy on Canadian user income. It will apply retroactively, leaving American companies with an American bill of $ 2 billion due to the end of the month.
“We appreciate the decisive response of the administration to the discriminatory tax of Canada on American digital exports,” said Matt Schrurs, Director General of Computer & Communications Industry Association, in a statement.
Canada and the United States have discussed softening A series of steep rates imposed by Trump on the goods of the American neighbor.
The Republican President told journalists earlier that the United States was soon preparing to send letters to different countries, informing them of the new rate rate that his administration would impose on them.
Trump imposed prices of 50% Steel and aluminum as well as 25% prices on cars. It also charges a 10% tax on imports from most countries, although it can increase on rates on July 9, after the 90 -day negotiation period.
Canada and Mexico face separate prices up to 25% that Trump has set up under the auspices of the smuggling of fentanyl smuggling, although some products are still protected under the Mexico-Canada 2020 American agreement signed during Trump’s first mandate.
Addressing journalists after a private meeting with Republican senators on Friday, the Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent refused to comment on the news that Trump had ended commercial negotiations with Canada.
“I was in Reunion,” said Bessent before moving on to the following question.
About 60% of US imported oil imports also come from Canada and 85% of American electricity imports.
Canada is also the largest foreign supplier of steel, aluminum and uranium in the United States and has 34 minerals and critical metals that Pentagon is impatient to obtain.
About 80% of Canada exports go to the United States
Daniel Beland, professor of political science at McGill University in Montreal, said it was an internal tax issue, but that it has been a source of tensions between Canada and the United States for some time because it has targeted American technology.
“The Digital Services Tax Act was promulgated a year ago, so the advent of this new tax has been known for a long time,” said Beland. “However, President Trump waited just before his implementation to create a drama in the context of current and very uncertain commercial negotiations between the two countries.”
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Gillies reported in Toronto. The writers of the Associated Press Will Weisset, Joey Cappelletti and Paul Wiseman in Washington contributed to this report.
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