Trump Ends Negotiations Over Digital Service Tax
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Summary
The U.S. President has Canada firmly in his sights again, and in his latest social media post, it appears to have grave ramifications for trade between Canada and the United States. Now, Donald Trump is threatening even more tariffs on Canada.
Transcript
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the u.s president has canada firmly in his sights again in his latest social media post it appears
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to have grave ramifications for trade between canada and the united states canada is now in
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serious trouble after donald trump ended trade talks with mark carney donald trump ended talks
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in regards to the digital services tax a proposed three percent tax on american big tech firms
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now donald trump is threatening even more tariffs on canada let's take a look at that
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let's dig deeper into all of this we've got cbc's rafi buja kenyon on the story joining us now live
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from ottawa rafi we just broke the news a few moments ago the president has posted on true social
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that he is terminating all discussions on trade with canada effective immediately what are we
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hearing from the president yeah this is a pretty dramatic thing to post you know just a few days
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before canada day and also uh just a few days before independence day in the u.s but he's
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put this tweet up effectively it's on your screens and i'll read it to you he's saying we have just
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been informed that canada a very difficult country to trade with including the fact that they have
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charged our farmers as much as 400 percent tariffs for years on dairy products has just announced that
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they are putting a digital services tax on our american technology companies which is a direct and
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blatant attack on our country they are obviously copying the european union which has done the
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same thing and is currently under discussion with us also all based on this egregious tax we are hereby
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terminating all discussions on trade with canada effective immediately we will let canada know the
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tariff that they will be paying to do business with the united states of america within the next seven
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day period thank you for your attention to this matter which is what he's been signing off his social
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media posts lately so yeah this is quite dramatic um we are in touch with the canadian government
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trying to figure out what this means on their end if they're talking to the s certainly phone calls
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would be being made right now we are aware that um dominic leblanc the intergovernmental trade minister
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has uh not been talking to his u.s counterparts this week to uh secretary of commerce howard ludnick
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we we understand according to leblanc's office that this is due to a scheduling conflict that's what we
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were told uh that there is nothing more to read into the fact that those conversations have not been
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happening this week at the political level but seeing this sudden late afternoon uh tweet from or social
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media posts from trump well that that suggests there are more questions to be answered here and
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we're asking those questions and trying to find out more canada's economy has been shrinking
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according to recent reports and a new set of tariffs could be the death blow it's yet to be
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seen what donald trump plans on doing however if he moves forward with 25 to 30 percent tariffs
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that could be fatal to our economy which is reliant on the united states so there's some
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misinformation here that i want to correct first of all there's no 400 percent tariffs on dairy
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products from the united states that's not true there are tariffs on dairy products that enter
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into canada but only if it passes a certain quota and those quotas have never been filled so the
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tariffs have never applied i also want to point out that this is covered by the trade deal that the
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united states made with canada back when donald trump was president in his first term so donald trump
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is literally complaining about a trade deal that he signed in regards to the digital services tax this
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is essentially a small tax on big corporations that do business in canada big tech companies
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like google and facebook want to do business in canada but they try to get away with paying barely
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any tax so i don't think this tax is an incredibly bad idea however i do think it's the wrong time to
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bring it up putting this tax forward when you're in a tense trade negotiation with the united states
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is simply not a good idea so i think carney screwed up here so i've seen other political commentators
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take trump's statements about dairy tariffs at face value but i want to point out that that's simply
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not the case there's a lot of misinformation out there but the truth is is that these tariffs are
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not applied and that they're really a non-issue i mean think about it like this when's the last time
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you ever heard anyone in canada complain about dairy tariffs for not being able to get american
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milk products that just never happens so i want to point that out so to end this off i want to show
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you a video of tom leclair talking about the tariffs today before we get into this don't forget to
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like and subscribe let's go well there are two things that are mentioned in that posting by
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donald trump on truth social in the first one he's talking about our supply management system there's
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nothing new in that whatsoever it's been there all along the 400 reference is the fact that american
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dairy producers barely have access to the canadian market they did get a bit of a breach when they we
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had the canada us mexico trade deal we've otherwise been able to keep intact our supply management system
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and parliament has just passed the law saying that in any trade negotiations that we will maintain
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that system of of supply management the other one the digital services tax is also not new it's not
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something that was just thrown into the picture what's happening though is canada is obviously saying
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that's canadian jurisdiction it's our sovereignty and we're imposing a digital tax that's the one for
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example that saw some of some of the major players in social media withdraw from providing news in the
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canadian market notably facebook and simply because they didn't like that tax it was their way of
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reacting to a canadian decision that's fine so trump putting these two things on the table now is just
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re-warming up a very old meal that's been lying around for some time and it can mean one of two
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things because with trump of course you're never too sure since he considers himself a master negotiator
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maybe he has real hope to get rid of the digital services tax if that happens there'll be a heavy
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price politically to pay for carney of course but then trump gets to say you see i got a masterful deal
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on the dairy stuff on the supply management i don't see how it would be possible for us to give much
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much on that because it across the country the whole system has been in place for so many decades
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that it would be upheaval in the canadian dairy market so i don't see that one as being very easy
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to move along getting rid of a new digital services tax sure that's not the end of the world you know
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finance minister francis-philippe champagne suggested to reporters last week tom that the digital tax may be
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negotiated as part of the broader ongoing u.s canada trade discussions he said and i quote him here
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obviously all of that is something that we are considering as part of our broader discussions
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that you may have now we understand that the first uh sort of levy if we can call it that the
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first payment for digital tax was supposed to go out on monday in your understanding of what has
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happened now in this hour do you think that will still happen on monday yes but i also think that
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there are negotiations going on and that's the signal that you just correctly read in what
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françois philippe champagne said he's basically showing his hand and saying we're willing to
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negotiate this thing away if it's to get the broader trade deal so what's trump's game how does he always
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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
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say oh these are the two things that i have to fight against this digital services tax boy that's
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an attack on american corporations we can't have that he's probably almost got that in his pocket
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now so he's going to say that he's shutting the thing down and then say that canada came crawling back
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and finally gave him what he wanted tom what do you make of this timeline because the president has
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this habit of you know one week two weeks 15 days two months and now he says i'm going to quote him
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that within the next seven day period we will let canada know the tariff that they will be paying
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to do business with the united states of america what do you make of this one week period the same
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thing that we're very close to a deal and that trump will get to crow that he got the deal that he
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wanted if if it does come to pass at the same time prime minister carney is going to have to get ready
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to be very tough trump keeps saying he doesn't need canadian petroleum doesn't need canadian lumber it
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doesn't need anything we've got in canada including the potash that goes into every single farmer's
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field in the united states of america fine i mean there are lots of options for us there too uh we
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could start levying very heavy tariffs or simply shut the tap on some of those things and the americans
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would be in a really tough bind they're already completely disobeying breaking every single rule that
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they signed on to in the canada us-mexico trade deal they can't be trusted on anything and especially
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not on a new trade deal and it's at the same time that's what trump says he wants he wants to
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renegotiate the canada us-mexico deal so this is donald trump at his best in his mind at his worst as
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far as the rest of the planet is concerned misbehaving spinning stuff going completely outside the normal
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rules of a negotiation this is the the trump method i don't read that much into it frankly
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i think that trump is simply signaling that he thinks that a trade deal is within hailing distance
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with canada right now we'll probably get to that in the next week and he again this will be donald
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trump's chance to crow what a great negotiator he is indeed okay we leave it at that for the moment
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but always a pleasure cdv news political commentator former ndp leader tom mulcair thank you for your