Latest news with #Tariffs
Russia Today
9 hours ago
- Business
- Russia Today
US terminating trade talks with Canada
US President Donald Trump has announced the termination of all trade talks with Canada in light of Ottawa's tax on digital services, which he called a 'adirect and blatant attack on our country.' Relations between the neighbors began to sour when Trump imposed 25% tariffs on Canadian goods in February soon after taking office. Ottawa responded with reciprocal tariffs. Trump later temporarily suspended the tariffs, expressing a willingness to negotiate individually favorable terms for US businesses with the countries that he had targeted for tariffs. Trump has long accused Canada of taking unfair advantage of the US and has on several occasions suggested that it should become the 51st US state, arguing that Washington effectively subsidizes Canada's economy. In a post on Truth Social on Friday, Trump stated 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.' 'Based on this egregious Tax, we are hereby terminating ALL discussions on Trade with Canada, effective immediately,' the US president proclaimed. He added that his government would notify Ottawa of the 'Tariff that they will be paying to do business with the United States of America within the next seven day period.' Later on Friday, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney told reporters that his country would 'continue to conduct these complex negotiations in the best interests of Canadians.' However, he noted that he had yet to speak with Trump about the issue. Canada's digital services tax, enacted in June 2024, requires companies providing digital services in the country and earning more than CAD 20 million ($14.5 million) in revenue from Canadian sources to pay a 3% tax on their profits. The first payments are due on Monday. According to Canadian media, US tech giants such as Amazon, Apple, Airbnb, Google, Meta, and Uber are expected to pay approximately $2 billion by the end of July. The tax is retroactive to January 1, 2022. In March, Carney described Trump's tariffs as 'unjustified' and stated that 'Canada will win' the trade war with the US. He vowed that Canada 'will never, ever, in any way, shape, or form, be part of the United States.'
Asharq Al-Awsat
a day ago
- Business
- Asharq Al-Awsat
Trump Says he's Terminating Trade Talks with Canada over Tax on Tech Firms
President Donald Trump said Friday that he's suspending trade talks with Canada over its plans to continue with its tax on technology firms, which he called 'a direct and blatant attack on our country.' Trump, in a post on his social media network, 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 is set to go into effect Monday. '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,' Trump said in his post. Trump's announcement was the latest swerve in the trade war he's launched since taking office for a second term in January. Progress with Canada has been a roller coaster, starting with the US president poking at the nation's northern neighbor and repeatedly suggesting it would be absorbed as a US state. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said Friday that his country would 'continue to conduct these complex negotiations in the best interests of Canadians. It's a negotiation.' Trump later said he expects that Canada will remove the tax, The Associated Press reported. 'Economically we have such power over Canada. We'd rather not use it,' Trump said in the Oval Office. "It's not going to work out well for Canada. They were foolish to do it.' When asked if Canada could do anything to restart talks, he suggested Canada could remove the tax, predicted it will 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 traveled to Canada for the G7 summit in Alberta, where Carney said that Canada and the US had set a 30-day deadline for trade talks. The digital services tax will hit companies including Amazon, Google, Meta, Uber and Airbnb with a 3% levy on revenue from Canadian users. It will apply retroactively, leaving US companies with a $2 billion US bill due at the end of the month. 'We appreciate the Administration's decisive response to Canada's discriminatory tax on U.S. digital exports,' Matt Schruers, chief executive of the Computer & Communications Industry Association, said in a statement. Canada and the US have been discussing easing a series of steep tariffs Trump imposed on goods from America's neighbor. The Republican president earlier told reporters that the US was soon preparing to send letters to different countries, informing them of the new tariff rate his administration would impose on them. Trump has imposed 50% tariffs on steel and aluminum as well as 25% tariffs on autos. He is also charging a 10% tax on imports from most countries, though he could raise rates on July 9, after the 90-day negotiating period he set would expire. Canada and Mexico face separate tariffs of as much as 25% that Trump put into place under the auspices of stopping fentanyl smuggling, though some products are still protected under the 2020 US-Mexico-Canada Agreement signed during Trump's first term. Addressing reporters after a private meeting with Republican senators Friday, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent declined to comment on news that Trump had ended trade talks with Canada. 'I was in the meeting,' Bessent said before moving on to the next question. About 60% of US crude oil imports are from Canada, and 85% of US electricity imports as well. Canada is also the largest foreign supplier of steel, aluminum and uranium to the US and has 34 critical minerals and metals that the Pentagon is eager to obtain. About 80% of Canada's exports go to the US. Daniel Beland, a political science professor at McGill University in Montreal, said it is a domestic tax issue, but it has been a source of tensions between Canada and the United States for a while because it targets US tech giants. 'The Digital Services Tax Act was signed into law a year ago so the advent of this new tax has been known for a long time,' Beland said. "Yet, President Trump waited just before its implementation to create drama over it in the context of ongoing and highly uncertain trade negotiations between the two countries.'
CBC
2 days ago
- Business
- CBC
Alberta finance minister to deliver year-end fiscal update Friday
Social Sharing Alberta's finance minister is set to deliver the final bottom line number today on last year's provincial budget. Nate Horner's new figure will close the books on the budget for the fiscal year that ended in March. That budget was last forecast to come in with a nearly $6-billion surplus. Horner is expected to deliver his fiscal update Friday during a news conference at 1 p.m. MT. Into the red Alberta's new budget year is now a few months old, but its expected bottom line number is deep in the red. Horner introduced the budget for the 2025-26 fiscal year amid great financial uncertainty, just days before the U.S. tariffs were set to come into effect. The current budget, introduced by Horner in February, predicts Alberta will register a $5.2-billion deficit at the end of March 2026. At the time, Horner cautioned that Alberta's deficit could soar much higher, to an estimated $8.7 billion under a worst-case tariff scenario. It also predicts deficits will continue for years after that due to declining oil prices, tax cuts and global events including the trade levies imposed by the United States.
News.com.au
2 days ago
- Business
- News.com.au
PM urged to lean into Trump's ‘transactional' nature as risk of new tariffs emerges
Anthony Albanese has been urged to lean into Donald Trump's 'transactional' nature amid concerns the Prime Minister is mishandling Australia's relationship with the US. Nearly six months have passed since Mr Trump's inauguration and Mr Albanese is yet to secure an in-person meeting with the US President. Australian producers have been slugged with tariffs on most exports to the US, including duties of up to 50 per cent on steel and aluminium, and doubts loom large about the Trump administration's commitment to AUKUS. The Albanese government has also made Australia an outlier in the West on defence spending, refusing to budge at all after Washington's call to hike it to 3.5 per cent amid alarm bells over China's military build-up. Commenting on Mr Albanese's management of the alliance, former ambassador to the US Joe Hockey warned on Friday (AEST) refusing to engage in deal-making with Mr Trump risked offending him. 'If you're not willing to transact, it's a snub,' he told Sky News in Washington. 'The fundamental point for the Albanese government, or the Turnbull or Morrison government, whoever it is – you have to be prepared to transact. 'It's a living, breathing relationship. It goes two ways.' The warning came after Mr Trump threatened further tariffs against Spain for refusing to boost its defence budget in line with other NATO countries. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez was the only NATO member leader not to agree to hike military spending to 5 per cent of GDP at this week's summit. Mr Trump in turn accused Mr Sánchez of wanting 'a free ride' and said Spain would 'have to pay it back to us on trade', playing into critics who argue the Trump administration's 'America First' agenda is isolationist. Mr Hockey, a former Coalition treasurer, now runs US-based consultancy Bondi Partners. He rejected claims Mr Trump was leading the US into an 'isolationist phase'. 'They're involved in Ukraine, they're involved in the Middle East, they … stopped the war between India and Pakistan, and … tomorrow they're signing a peace agreement between two warring countries in Africa,' Mr Hockey said. 'If that's isolationism, then we've got a whole new definition.' Mr Hockey said the Trump administration offered an opportunity for the West to advance its goals and crucially, for Australia, counter China's increasing aggression. 'The bottom line is, we should be concerned about our neighbourhood and the aggression of China, of Beijing,' he said. 'It is Beijing, Chinese people are great people, this is Beijing's aggression that we need to stand up to. 'And now we have an open display of incredible power to be able to deliver on the objectives of the Western world. 'And we should be embracing that, not fearing it, not being worried or afraid to go to the Oval Office or anywhere else.'
The Standard
2 days ago
- Business
- The Standard
EU leaders discuss new US trade proposal as deal clock ticks down
A 3D-printed miniature model depicting U.S. President Donald Trump depicting European Union flag and word "Tariffs" in this illustration taken, April 17, 2025. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration
