Trump says he’s terminating trade talks with Canada over tax on tech
firms
[June 28, 2025] By
MICHELLE L. PRICE and ROB GILLIES
WASHINGTON (AP) — 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 U.S. 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 U.S. president
poking at the nation’s northern neighbor and repeatedly suggesting it
would be absorbed as a U.S. 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.
“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 U.S. 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 U.S. companies with a $2 billion U.S.
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 U.S. have been discussing easing a series of steep
tariffs Trump imposed on goods from America’s neighbor.
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President Donald Trump speaks to the media, Friday, June 27, 2025,
in the briefing room of the White House in Washington. (AP
Photo/Manuel Ceneta)
 The Republican president earlier
told reporters that the U.S. 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
U.S.-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 U.S. crude oil imports are from Canada, and 85% of U.S.
electricity imports as well.
Canada is also the largest foreign supplier of steel, aluminum and
uranium to the U.S. and has 34 critical minerals and metals that the
Pentagon is eager to obtain.
About 80% of Canada’s exports go to the U.S.
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 U.S. 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.”
___
Gillies reported from Toronto. Associated Press writers Will
Weissert, Joey Cappelletti and Paul Wiseman in Washington
contributed to this report.
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