As Canada pushes ahead with a new digital services tax on foreign and domestic technology companies, United States President Donald Trump has retaliated by ending all trade talks and threatened to impose additional tariffs on exports from Ottawa.In a post on his Truth Social platform on Friday, Trump called the new Canadian tax structure a “direct and blatant attack on our country”, adding that Canada is “a very difficult country to trade with”.
“Based on this egregious Tax, we are hereby terminating ALL discussions on Trade with Canada, effective immediately,” he wrote. He added that he would announce new tariffs of his own for Canada in a matter of days.
US companies such as Amazon, Meta, Google and Uber face an estimated $2bn in bills under the new tax.
Trump’s decision marks a sharp return to trade tensions between the two countries, abruptly ending a more cooperative phase since Mark Carney’s election as Canada’s prime minister in March.
It also marks a further escalation in the trade-as-pressure tactic under Trump’s second term in Washington.
The US is Canada’s largest trading partner by far, with more than 80 percent of Canadian exports destined for the US. In 2024, total bilateral goods trade …
