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‘Rage' survey shows the politician Canadians are most angry about

‘Rage' survey shows the politician Canadians are most angry about

Toronto Star20-06-2025

A person holds up a sign as protesters gather before the start of the G7 summit in Calgary on June 15, 2025. DAVE CHIDLEY AFP via Getty Image

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Canada U-turn leaves Europe in the lurch on U.S. tech taxes
Canada U-turn leaves Europe in the lurch on U.S. tech taxes

CTV News

time30 minutes ago

  • CTV News

Canada U-turn leaves Europe in the lurch on U.S. tech taxes

Prime Minister Mark Carney walks with U.S. President Donald Trump after a group photo at the G7 Summit, Monday, June 16, 2025, in Kananaskis, Canada. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein) PARIS -- Canada's dropping of a tax on U.S. tech giants under the pressure of Donald Trump is fuelling concern about the future of such levies in other countries, particularly in Europe. 'Currently, about half of all European OECD countries have either announced, proposed, or implemented' a digital services tax pending global action, said the Tax Foundation, a think tank which supports the introduction of such taxes. But the future of such measures is unclear after the Group of Seven nations agreed Saturday to exempt US multinational companies from a global minimum tax imposed by other countries. The move sparked a pointed reaction from Nobel prize winning economist Joseph Stiglitz. 'This is about more than trade -- it's about whether democratically elected governments can regulate and tax powerful corporations or whether tech billionaires can dictate policy through political proxies,' he said. Who has imposed such a tax? Austria, Brazil, Britain, France, India, Italy, Spain and Turkiye are a dozen large countries which have imposed or planned to impose special taxes on big tech firms. The objective is to force them to pay taxes where they carry out business as well as to counter the tax optimization strategies they often practice. Generally, the taxes target sales revenue and focus essentially on US firms like Alphabet (Google), Amazon, Apple, Facebook (Meta) and Microsoft. But they differ from one country to another in terms of sales that are taxed, with some targeting advertising revenue and others sales of data. 'Most of the proposed or adopted rates are in the 2-5 per cent range,' of the revenue stream targeted, according to analysts at the Canadian Tax Foundation. Most nations adopted the taxes pending a global agreement which would see multinational companies pay some taxes in countries where they operate, but the prospects for such a deal now look bleak. What these taxes generate The taxes tend to raise more money year after year, according to the latest data from the EU Tax Observatory, which dates from June 2023. Britain, France, India, Italy and Turkiye have seen steady increases in the revenue their taxes generate. Both Britain and France each raised approximately US$1.1 billion last year via their digital services taxes. Italy saw its revenue from the tax jump by 90 per cent from 2021 to over $530 million last year, according to local media. But Spain, which hoped to raise more than a billion per year via its tax, only raised only around $350 million in 2023, according to La Vanguardia daily. Other dominoes to fall? Before Canada, India had already halted in April its six per cent tax on online advertising by foreign firms against the background of trade talks with the United States. The taxes may fall elsewhere. While Britain has reached a trade deal with the United States to avoid the worst tariffs, it wants to go further and has refused to rule out a modification or elimination of its digital services tax. EU nations so far haven't indicated that the tax is on the table. A German government spokesman said Monday that Canada's dropping its tech tax had 'absolutely no bearing' on Berlin's position as it considers it considers its tax policies. But worries remain. National digital service taxes are 'vulnerable to economic and political threats -- particularly from the US, which has historically protected its digital multinationals from fair taxation abroad,' said the Tax Justice Network, a coalition of researchers and activists. By Ali Bekhtaoui with AFP foreign bureaus

G7 urges talks to resume for deal on Iran nuclear program
G7 urges talks to resume for deal on Iran nuclear program

CTV News

timean hour ago

  • CTV News

G7 urges talks to resume for deal on Iran nuclear program

WASHINGTON/OTTAWA, June 30 (Reuters) - Foreign ministers from the Group of Seven nations said on Monday they supported the ceasefire between Israel and Iran and urged for negotiations to resume for a deal to address Iran's nuclear program, according to a joint statement. Since April, Iran and the U.S. have held talks aimed at finding a new diplomatic solution regarding Iran's nuclear program. Tehran says its program is peaceful and Israel and its allies say they want to ensure Iran cannot build a nuclear weapon. 'We call for the resumption of negotiations, resulting in a comprehensive, verifiable and durable agreement that addresses Iran's nuclear program,' the G7 foreign ministers said. Last week, Trump announced a ceasefire between U.S. ally Israel and its regional rival Iran to halt a war that began on June 13 when Israel attacked Iran. The Israel-Iran conflict had raised alarms in a region already on edge since the start of Israel's war in Gaza in October 2023. Before the ceasefire was announced, Washington struck Iran's nuclear sites and Iran targeted a U.S. base in Qatar in retaliation. The G7 foreign ministers said they urged 'all parties to avoid actions that could further destabilize the region.' U.S. Middle East Envoy Steve Witkoff has said talks between Washington and Tehran were 'promising' and that Washington was hopeful for a long-term peace deal. The G7 top diplomats denounced threats against the head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog on Monday, after a hardline Iranian newspaper said IAEA boss Rafael Grossi should be tried and executed as an Israeli agent. On June 12, the U.N. nuclear watchdog's 35-nation Board of Governors declared Iran in breach of its non-proliferation obligations for the first time in almost 20 years. Israel is the only Middle Eastern country believed to have nuclear weapons and said its war against Iran aimed to prevent Tehran from developing its own nuclear weapons. Iran is a party to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, while Israel is not. The U.N. nuclear watchdog, which carries out inspections in Iran, says it has 'no credible indication' of an active, coordinated weapons program in Iran. Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Washington and Ismail Shakil in Ottawa; Editing by Chris Reese and Lincoln Feast.

Canada scraps tax on tech giants in bid to revive US trade talks
Canada scraps tax on tech giants in bid to revive US trade talks

Canada News.Net

timean hour ago

  • Canada News.Net

Canada scraps tax on tech giants in bid to revive US trade talks

US President Donald Trump had halted negotiations with Ottawa over what he called an "attack" on American companies Canada has shelved its plan to slap a digital services tax (DST) on tech companies in a bid to get trade talks with the US back on track, reversing course just as the measure was due to kick in. The 3% tax, passed into law last year by the government of former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, was set to take effect on Monday and would have been applied retroactively to 2022-2024 profits. It would have primarily targeted US companies like Amazon, Google and Meta, costing them an estimated $3 billion. "Today's announcement will support a resumption of negotiations toward the July 21, 2025 timeline set out at this month's G7 Leaders' Summit in Kananaskis," Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said in a statement on Sunday. "Canada's new government will always be guided by the overall contribution of any possible agreement to the best interests of Canadian workers and businesses," he added. Carney and Trump agreed to resume trade talks when they met earlier this month at the G7 summit, where the prime minister said they had agreed to finalizing a new economic agreement within 30 days. Canadian Finance Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne wrote on X late on Sunday that dropping the levy would allow Ottawa "to make vital progress and reinforce our work to create jobs and build prosperity for all Canadians." On Friday, US President Donald Trump had denounced the tax hike as a "direct and blatant attack on our country" and threatened to terminate all trade negotiations that had been ongoing between the North American neighbors for months. He also vowed to impose new tariffs on Canadian goods within a week. US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick welcomed the reversal, saying the tax "would have been a deal breaker for any trade deal with America." Tensions between the two countries have been mounting since February, when Trump imposed a 25% tariff on Canadian goods shortly after taking office. Ottawa responded with reciprocal duties, though Trump later suspended the measure, saying he was open to country-specific deals that benefit US businesses. Trump has long accused Canada of exploiting US trade and on several occasions suggested it should become America's 51st state. This fueled the ambitions of the country's Liberal Party and Carney's election campaign. Shortly before taking office as prime minister, he described Trump's tariffs as "unjustified" and stated that "Canada will win" the trade war with the US. On March 14, the day he was sworn in, he vowed that the country "will never, ever, in any way, shape, or form, be part of the United States." Canada is the US's second-largest trading partner after Mexico, and the top buyer of US exports. According to the US Census Bureau, it imported $349 billion in American goods last year and exported $412 billion to the US.

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