OTTAWA — U.S. President Donald Trump announced Friday he is putting an end to trade discussions with Canada because of the digital services tax moving ahead next week.
Trump made the announcement on his social media network, Truth Social.
“We have just been informed that Canada, a very difficult Country to TRADE with… 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,” he wrote.
“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.”
Donald J. Trump Truth Social 06.27.25 01:44 PM EST pic.twitter.com/kqmNyDXwgJ
— Commentary Donald J. Trump Posts From Truth Social (@TrumpDailyPosts) June 27, 2025
Prime Minister Mark Carney’s office did not immediately issue a comment about Trump’s latest statement.
Carney
had already lowered expectations this week
about reaching an agreement with Trump for an economic and security pact within 30 years, as agreed to during the G7 summit in Alberta, by saying “the right deal is possible, but nothing’s assured.”
The first payment for Canada’s digital tax is due Monday, according to the Finance department, and covers revenue retroactively to 2022. The tax is three per cent of the digital services revenue a firm makes from Canadian users above $20 million in a year.
Earlier this month, Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne said his government was moving ahead with the tax even though it remained an irritant with the United States.
“That’s the law in Canada. We had fairly long, extensive discussions at the G7 about the different regimes that you find in different parts of the world. That’s not unique to Canada, by the way,” he said.
Trump accused Canada of “copying” the European Union (EU), which has many countries that also have a digital services tax in place.
The EU is also in talks with the U.S. to avoid so-called “reciprocal tariffs” of up to 50 per cent. Trump issued a deadline of July 9 to strike a deal but said in a press conference on Friday he could decide to extend the deadlines or make them shorter if he wanted to.
Trump said he has already made deals with a handful of countries on the world stage, including China and the United Kingdom, and was in the process of making some others.
“But some will be disappointed because they’re going to have to pay tariffs,” he said.
More details to follow…
— With files from Christopher Nardi and Bloomberg.
National Post
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