U.S. President Donald Trump said Friday he’s terminating all trade discussions 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 a social media post.
He says he’s pulling back from the bilateral trade discussions because Canada plans to move ahead with its digital services tax (DST), which requires web giants pay a special tax.
Set to take effect on June 30, the DST requires U.S. companies like Amazon, Google, Meta, Uber and Airbnb pay a three per cent levy on revenue from Canadian users — a policy enacted by former prime minister Justin Trudeau’s government that the Parliamentary Budget Office projects will bring in billions of dollars in revenue.
It’s not so much whether or not he knows it, so much as how much he cares. He knows what he says will get his base riled up, and that’s what he likes. It strokes his ego and gives him more power.