Donald Trump went off the rails again, Friday, and sent the trade negotiations between Canada and US off the rails, as well. Trump ended all negotiations on Friday stating that the digital services tax was very unfair to Americans. This tax, was to be applied retroactively, today, back to 2023. US tech giants such as Amazon would’ve been hit with a $2 billion tax bill. Coincidentally, Trump has many friends and donors who are tech giants. When Trump went off the rails on Friday, he started bringing up his old beefs such as annexing Canada, and so on.
In a sense, I was pleased that Canada was standing up to the bully. The digital services tax was not unique to Canada. The European Union was considering the same thing. It would’ve been good for Canada and the European Union to stand together
Canada decided to remove the digital services tax last night. In doing so trade negotiations with the US has resumed. Mark Carney has announced that they are aiming for a July 21 completion date of the negotiations.
It is a good thing because negotiations have resumed. The part I’m concerned about is that Canada has given into the bully. It depends on how negotiation go from here. Trump being the bully he is will probably want much more. Mark Carney, on the other hand will say that cancellation of the digital services tax was a very big give, and that is as far as he will go.
Trump is a zero sum person. He wins you lose. The thing that Mark Carney has going for him is he is far more smarter than Trump and can run circles around him.
It remains to be seen how this turns out.