Mark Slapinski - Trump Ends Negotiations Over Digital Service Tax

00:00:00.000 the u.s president has canada firmly in his sights again in his latest social media post it appears

00:00:06.960 to have grave ramifications for trade between canada and the united states canada is now in

00:00:13.200 serious trouble after donald trump ended trade talks with mark carney donald trump ended talks

00:00:18.640 in regards to the digital services tax a proposed three percent tax on american big tech firms

00:00:24.640 now donald trump is threatening even more tariffs on canada let's take a look at that

00:00:28.640 let's dig deeper into all of this we've got cbc's rafi buja kenyon on the story joining us now live

00:00:34.480 from ottawa rafi we just broke the news a few moments ago the president has posted on true social

00:00:40.400 that he is terminating all discussions on trade with canada effective immediately what are we

00:00:46.240 hearing from the president yeah this is a pretty dramatic thing to post you know just a few days

00:00:53.360 before canada day and also uh just a few days before independence day in the u.s but he's

00:00:58.960 put this tweet up effectively it's on your screens and i'll read it to you he's saying we have just

00:01:03.600 been informed that canada a very difficult country to trade with including the fact that they have

00:01:09.280 charged our farmers as much as 400 percent tariffs for years on dairy products has just announced that

00:01:15.360 they are putting a digital services tax on our american technology companies which is a direct and

00:01:21.040 blatant attack on our country they are obviously copying the european union which has done the 0.97

00:01:26.880 same thing and is currently under discussion with us also all based on this egregious tax we are hereby

00:01:33.760 terminating all discussions on trade with canada effective immediately we will let canada know the

00:01:39.360 tariff that they will be paying to do business with the united states of america within the next seven

00:01:44.160 day period thank you for your attention to this matter which is what he's been signing off his social

00:01:50.000 media posts lately so yeah this is quite dramatic um we are in touch with the canadian government

00:01:58.480 trying to figure out what this means on their end if they're talking to the s certainly phone calls

00:02:04.000 would be being made right now we are aware that um dominic leblanc the intergovernmental trade minister

00:02:12.880 has uh not been talking to his u.s counterparts this week to uh secretary of commerce howard ludnick

00:02:20.320 we we understand according to leblanc's office that this is due to a scheduling conflict that's what we

00:02:25.760 were told uh that there is nothing more to read into the fact that those conversations have not been

00:02:31.360 happening this week at the political level but seeing this sudden late afternoon uh tweet from or social

00:02:38.640 media posts from trump well that that suggests there are more questions to be answered here and

00:02:44.000 we're asking those questions and trying to find out more canada's economy has been shrinking

00:02:48.400 according to recent reports and a new set of tariffs could be the death blow it's yet to be

00:02:53.440 seen what donald trump plans on doing however if he moves forward with 25 to 30 percent tariffs

00:02:58.480 that could be fatal to our economy which is reliant on the united states so there's some

00:03:03.040 misinformation here that i want to correct first of all there's no 400 percent tariffs on dairy

00:03:07.840 products from the united states that's not true there are tariffs on dairy products that enter

00:03:12.720 into canada but only if it passes a certain quota and those quotas have never been filled so the

00:03:17.520 tariffs have never applied i also want to point out that this is covered by the trade deal that the

00:03:22.400 united states made with canada back when donald trump was president in his first term so donald trump

00:03:27.280 is literally complaining about a trade deal that he signed in regards to the digital services tax this

00:03:32.320 is essentially a small tax on big corporations that do business in canada big tech companies

00:03:37.680 like google and facebook want to do business in canada but they try to get away with paying barely

00:03:42.080 any tax so i don't think this tax is an incredibly bad idea however i do think it's the wrong time to

00:03:48.000 bring it up putting this tax forward when you're in a tense trade negotiation with the united states

00:03:53.120 is simply not a good idea so i think carney screwed up here so i've seen other political commentators

00:03:58.560 take trump's statements about dairy tariffs at face value but i want to point out that that's simply

00:04:03.520 not the case there's a lot of misinformation out there but the truth is is that these tariffs are

00:04:07.920 not applied and that they're really a non-issue i mean think about it like this when's the last time

00:04:12.240 you ever heard anyone in canada complain about dairy tariffs for not being able to get american

00:04:16.800 milk products that just never happens so i want to point that out so to end this off i want to show

00:04:21.200 you a video of tom leclair talking about the tariffs today before we get into this don't forget to

00:04:25.520 like and subscribe let's go well there are two things that are mentioned in that posting by

00:04:33.200 donald trump on truth social in the first one he's talking about our supply management system there's

00:04:38.320 nothing new in that whatsoever it's been there all along the 400 reference is the fact that american

00:04:44.880 dairy producers barely have access to the canadian market they did get a bit of a breach when they we

00:04:50.480 had the canada us mexico trade deal we've otherwise been able to keep intact our supply management system

00:04:57.040 and parliament has just passed the law saying that in any trade negotiations that we will maintain

00:05:03.920 that system of of supply management the other one the digital services tax is also not new it's not

00:05:11.040 something that was just thrown into the picture what's happening though is canada is obviously saying

00:05:16.240 that's canadian jurisdiction it's our sovereignty and we're imposing a digital tax that's the one for

00:05:22.320 example that saw some of some of the major players in social media withdraw from providing news in the

00:05:28.800 canadian market notably facebook and simply because they didn't like that tax it was their way of

00:05:34.560 reacting to a canadian decision that's fine so trump putting these two things on the table now is just

00:05:40.640 re-warming up a very old meal that's been lying around for some time and it can mean one of two

00:05:47.120 things because with trump of course you're never too sure since he considers himself a master negotiator

00:05:51.920 maybe he has real hope to get rid of the digital services tax if that happens there'll be a heavy

00:05:57.920 price politically to pay for carney of course but then trump gets to say you see i got a masterful deal

00:06:04.000 on the dairy stuff on the supply management i don't see how it would be possible for us to give much

00:06:11.120 much on that because it across the country the whole system has been in place for so many decades

00:06:17.040 that it would be upheaval in the canadian dairy market so i don't see that one as being very easy

00:06:22.160 to move along getting rid of a new digital services tax sure that's not the end of the world you know

00:06:27.200 finance minister francis-philippe champagne suggested to reporters last week tom that the digital tax may be

00:06:32.320 negotiated as part of the broader ongoing u.s canada trade discussions he said and i quote him here

00:06:38.640 obviously all of that is something that we are considering as part of our broader discussions

00:06:43.440 that you may have now we understand that the first uh sort of levy if we can call it that the

00:06:48.800 first payment for digital tax was supposed to go out on monday in your understanding of what has

00:06:53.520 happened now in this hour do you think that will still happen on monday yes but i also think that

00:06:59.680 there are negotiations going on and that's the signal that you just correctly read in what

00:07:04.000 françois philippe champagne said he's basically showing his hand and saying we're willing to

00:07:09.520 negotiate this thing away if it's to get the broader trade deal so what's trump's game how does he always

00:07:15.120 play the game it's always the same way he has to show that he's the winner so he's setting it up to

00:07:20.720 say oh these are the two things that i have to fight against this digital services tax boy that's

00:07:25.200 an attack on american corporations we can't have that he's probably almost got that in his pocket

00:07:31.200 now so he's going to say that he's shutting the thing down and then say that canada came crawling back

00:07:37.200 and finally gave him what he wanted tom what do you make of this timeline because the president has

00:07:42.320 this habit of you know one week two weeks 15 days two months and now he says i'm going to quote him

00:07:47.280 that within the next seven day period we will let canada know the tariff that they will be paying

00:07:51.920 to do business with the united states of america what do you make of this one week period the same

00:07:57.120 thing that we're very close to a deal and that trump will get to crow that he got the deal that he

00:08:02.560 wanted if if it does come to pass at the same time prime minister carney is going to have to get ready

00:08:08.000 to be very tough trump keeps saying he doesn't need canadian petroleum doesn't need canadian lumber it

00:08:13.520 doesn't need anything we've got in canada including the potash that goes into every single farmer's

00:08:18.400 field in the united states of america fine i mean there are lots of options for us there too uh we

00:08:24.000 could start levying very heavy tariffs or simply shut the tap on some of those things and the americans

00:08:31.040 would be in a really tough bind they're already completely disobeying breaking every single rule that

00:08:39.440 they signed on to in the canada us-mexico trade deal they can't be trusted on anything and especially

00:08:46.080 not on a new trade deal and it's at the same time that's what trump says he wants he wants to

00:08:49.600 renegotiate the canada us-mexico deal so this is donald trump at his best in his mind at his worst as

00:08:56.480 far as the rest of the planet is concerned misbehaving spinning stuff going completely outside the normal

00:09:03.280 rules of a negotiation this is the the trump method i don't read that much into it frankly

00:09:09.200 i think that trump is simply signaling that he thinks that a trade deal is within hailing distance

00:09:14.640 with canada right now we'll probably get to that in the next week and he again this will be donald

00:09:20.160 trump's chance to crow what a great negotiator he is indeed okay we leave it at that for the moment

00:09:25.520 but always a pleasure cdv news political commentator former ndp leader tom mulcair thank you for your

00:09:29.920 time tom all the best doc shay

Mark Slapinski - June 28, 2025

Trump Ends Negotiations Over Digital Service Tax

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