
Canadian PM Mark Carney scraps plans for digital tax on US technology firms
Canadian prime minister Mark Carney and US president Donald Trump will resume trade negotiations in order to agree on a deal by July 21, Canada's finance ministry said in a statement.
Mr Trump abruptly called off trade talks on Friday over the tax targeting U.S. technology firms, saying that it was a "blatant attack."
He reiterated his comments on Sunday, pledging to set a new tariff rate on Canadian goods within the next week, which threatened to push US-Canada relations back into chaos after a period of relative calm.
The breakdown in trade talks comes after the two leaders met at the G7 in mid-June and Mr Carney said they had agreed to wrap up a new economic agreement within 30 days.
Canada's planned digital tax was 3% of the digital services revenue a firm takes in from Canadian users above $20m (€12.5m) in a calendar year, and payments were to be retroactive to 2022.
It would have impacted US technology firms, including Amazon, Meta, Alphabet's Google and Apple.
Monday collection will be halted, the Canada's finance ministry statement said, and finance minister François-Philippe Champagne will bring forward legislation to rescind the Digital Services Tax Act.
"The DST was announced in 2020 to address the fact that many large technology companies operating in Canada may not otherwise pay tax on revenues generated from Canadians," the statement said. "Canada's preference has always been a multilateral agreement related to digital services taxation."
Stocks index futures rose after the news the digital tax will be rescinded and the bullish sentiment spilled over into Asian markets.
Canada is the second-largest US trading partner after Mexico, and the largest buyer of US exports. It bought $349.4bn (€297bn) of US goods last year and exported $412.7bn (€351bn) to the US.
The Biden administration had requested trade dispute settlement consultations over the tax in 2024, saying it was inconsistent with Canada's North American trade deal obligations. Canada had escaped Mr Trump's broad tariffs imposed in April but faces 50% duties on steel and aluminum.
Reuters
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


RTÉ News
2 hours ago
- RTÉ News
Nvidia set to become world's most valuable company in history
Nvidia was on track to become the most valuable company in history today, with the chipmaker's market capitalisation reaching $3.92 trillion as Wall Street doubled down on optimism about AI. Shares of the leading designer of high-end AI chips were up 2.2% at $160.6 in morning trading, giving the company a higher market capitalisation than Apple's record closing value of $3.915 trillion on December 26, 2024. Nvidia's newest chips have made gains in training the largest artificial-intelligence models, fueling demand for products by the Santa Clara, California, company. Microsoft is currently the second-most valuable company on Wall Street, with a market capitalisation of $3.7 trillion as its shares rose 1.5% to $498.5. Apple rose 0.8%, giving it a market value of $3.19 trillion, in third place. A race among Microsoft, Meta Platforms, Alphabet and Tesla to build AI data centers and dominate the emerging technology has fueled insatiable demand for Nvidia's high-end processors. "When the first company crossed a trillion dollars, it was amazing. And now you're talking four trillion, which is just incredible. It tells you that there's this huge rush with AI spending and everybody's chasing it right now," said Joe Saluzzi, co-manager of trading at Themis Trading. The stock market value of Nvidia, whose core technology was developed to power video games, has increased nearly eight-fold over the past four years, from $500 billion in 2021. Nvidia is now worth more than the combined value of the Canadian and Mexican stock markets, according to LSEG data. The tech company also exceeds the total value of all publicly listed companies in the United Kingdom. Nvidia recently traded at about 32 times analysts' expected earnings for the next 12 months, below its average of about 41 over the past five years, according to LSEG data. That relatively modest price-to-earnings valuation reflects steadily increasing earnings estimates that have outpaced Nvidia's sizable stock gains. The company's stock has now rebounded more than 68% from its recent closing low on April 4, when Wall Street was reeling from President Donald Trump's global tariff announcements. including Nvidia, have recovered on expectations that the White House will cement trade deals to soften Trump's tariffs. Nvidia holds a weight of nearly 7.4% on the benchmark S&P 500. AI poster child Nvidia's swelling market capitalisation underscores Wall Street's big bets on the proliferation of generative AI technology, with the chipmaker's hardware serving as the foundation. Co-founded in 1993 by CEO Jensen Huang, Nvidia has evolved from a niche company popular among video game enthusiasts into Wall Street's barometer for the AI industry. The stock's recent rally comes after a slow first half of the year, when investor optimism about AI took a back seat to worries about tariffs and Trump's trade dispute with Beijing. Chinese startup DeepSeek in January triggered a selloff in global equities markets with a cut-price AI model that outperformed many Western competitors and sparked speculation that companies might spend less on high-end processors. In November of last year, Nvidia took over the spot on the Dow Jones Industrial Average formerly occupied by chipmaker Intel, reflecting a major shift in the semiconductor industry toward AI-linked development and the graphics processing hardware pioneered by Nvidia.


Irish Times
3 hours ago
- Irish Times
Public finances boosted by another spike in corporate tax receipts
The Government's financial position has been boosted by what Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe described as 'a sharp increase' in corporate tax in June. Exchequer returns for the first six months of the year show the business tax generated €7.4 billion last month, which was €1.5 billion or 25 per cent up on the same month last year. June is the second most important month of the year for corporate tax - behind November - as it reflects payments from companies with financial years ending in December, which include Google, Meta, Microsoft and Intel, all of which have big operations here. After a fall-off in receipts in May, there had been concern that US trade policy uncertainty might be affecting the profitability of these firms. READ MORE But the latest figures, published by the Department of Finance, appeared to dispel those concerns with corporate tax receipts - on a cumulative six-month basis - up 7.4 per cent on last year at €13.1 billion and ahead of the department's own forecasts. Nonetheless Mr Donohoe warned the month-to-month changes highlighted the volatility of corporate tax. 'Corporation tax receipts in June have seen a sharp increase, which follows a sharp decline last month,' he said. 'This serves as a reminder of the extreme volatility in this revenue stream, and of its inherent unsuitability as a basis for permanent spending commitments,' Mr Donohoe said. 'That is why we have established the Future Ireland Fund (FIF) and the Infrastructure, Climate and Nature Fund (ICNF) to set aside some of this potentially temporary revenue to help further protect us in the future,' he said. 'Last month, Government transferred some €3 billion into the two funds, and when the remaining transfers are made towards the end of this year, there will be around €16 billion in the FIF and ICNF," Mr Donohoe said. The latest exchequer figures showed overall tax receipts were €49.5 billion in the first six months of the year, up by 4.5 per cent on the first half of last year. When once-off tax revenues of €1.7 billion arising from the European court ruling against Apple are excluded, the department said 'underlying' tax revenues stood at €47.7 billion, which was a 6.7 per cent up on last year. On a cumulative six-month basis, income tax receipts of €17.4 billion were 4.3 per cent ahead of last year, reflecting the ongoing strength of the labour market with headline unemployment remaining at a low of 4 per cent. June was a non-VAT-due month and therefore monthly receipts 'relatively modest,' the department said. Cumulative receipts from the transactions tax for the six-month period came to €11.6 billion, up by almost 6 per cent on last year's total at this stage. Total expenditure for the first half of the year amounted to €50.9 billion, up by 8.2 per cent on 2024 and ahead of the department's profile by 0.7 per cent. The Irish Fiscal Advisory Council, the Government budgetary watchdog, is warning that overruns in day-to-day public spending are likely to top €2 billion this year. The department noted that year-on-year capital spending levels have increased substantially, with capital spending up 22.5 per cent overall. Minister for Public Expenditure Jack Chambers said: 'Today's figures show a significant increase in capital expenditure which underscores Government commitment to investing in the infrastructure our community needs and which is critical to enhancing our economic competitiveness,' he said. At a headline level, an exchequer surplus of €4.5 billion was recorded in the first half of the year.


RTÉ News
3 hours ago
- RTÉ News
Trump to speak with Putin ahead of call with Zelensky
Russian President Vladimir Putin and US counterpart Donald Trump said they would speak on the phone this afternoon, their first publicly announced call in over two weeks. A senior Ukrainian official said that Mr Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky also planned to speak to each other but not until tomorrow. Mr Trump has been in regular contact with both leaders since taking office in January as he pushes for an end to their nearly three-and-a-half year conflict. Neither Mr Putin nor Mr Trump said what they would discuss in the call. They have previously discussed issues such as the Ukraine conflict and economic cooperation. "Will be speaking to President Putin of Russia at 10AM Thank you!" Mr Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform. however, he did not say what they would discuss. Mr Trump and Mr Zelensky are expected to discuss the abrupt halt in some key US weapons deliveries to Kyiv, with the Ukrainian leader expected to raise potential future arms sales, the Financial Times reported. The timing of that call could change, the FT added, citing people familiar with the planning. The White House did not respond to a request for comment on the reported call. The US has paused some shipments of critical weapons to Ukraine due to low stockpiles. That decision led to Ukraine calling in the acting US envoy to Kyiv yesterday to underline the importance of military aid from Washington continuing, and caution that the move would weaken Ukraine's ability to defend against intensifying Russian airstrikes and battlefield advances. The Pentagon's move led in part to a cut in deliveries of Patriot air defence missiles that Ukraine relies on to destroy fast-moving ballistic missiles. Russia focusing airstrikes on Ukraine draft offices to derail recruitment, Kyiv says Meanwhile two people were killed in a Russian airstrike on the central Ukrainian city of Poltava and damaged a military draft office there in what Kyiv said was a concerted campaign to disrupt recruitment for its war effort. The strike on Poltava, which also injured 47 people and caused a fire at the city's main draft office, followed a drone attack on Monday near a recruitment centre in Kryvyi Rih. Both cities are regional capitals. "We understand that their (Russian) goal is to disrupt the mobilisation process," Vitaliy Sarantsev, a spokesperson for Ukraine's ground forces, told Ukraine's public broadcaster. "But I want to say is too early (for Russia) to uncork the champagne because the process is impossible to stop." Ukraine has struggled to fend off a bigger and better-equipped Russian army, and its call-up process has been marred by reports of draft-office corruption, poor training and weak battlefield command. Well into the fourth year of its full-scale invasion, Russia has gained ground in eastern Ukraine and repeatedly hit cities far behind the front lines with drones and missiles, while also waging a sabotage campaign there, Kyiv's domestic security agency says. In a statement last month, the Security Service of Ukraine said it had arrested more than 700 people since 2024 for alleged crimes that included arson attacks on troop vehicles and bombings at draft offices. A Ukrainian security official, who requested anonymity to discuss sensitive matters, said Russia was aiming to derail Kyiv's military call-up effort also by spreading disinformation and hacking recruitment office computers. "The disruption of mobilisation is closely linked to the spread of panic and intimidation of the population," the source said, adding that bombings were part of the general strategy. Intensifying strikes Russian forces have also stepped up strikes on military training grounds in recent weeks, prompting Kyiv's top general to order a strengthening of security measures at bases. A missile attack on southeastern Ukraine this week killed a brigade commander. Ukrainian forces have also staged longer-range attacks on Russian bases in occupied territory as well as deep inside Russia. Today's strike on Poltava came after the US said it had paused some weapons shipments to Ukraine, which drew warnings in Kyiv that the move would harm Ukraine's defence against intensifying Russian air strikes and battlefield gains. Separately, two people were killed in a ballistic missile strike on port infrastructure in the southern Ukrainian city of Odesa, said regional governor Oleh Kiper.