U.S. President Donald Trump says he’s “terminating all trade discussions” with Canada in response to the upcoming digital services tax.
On his Truth Social platform, Trump called the tax “a direct and blatant attack” on America and promised to hit Canada with punitive tariffs on “within the next seven-day period.”
Trump says he will hit Canada with more punitive tariffs “within the next seven day period.” pic.twitter.com/Q5runnCDp3
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) June 27, 2025
Trump is referring to the digital services tax (DST) which will see American tech giants like Amazon, Google, Meta, Uber and Airbnb pay a three percent levy on Canadian revenue. The DST was enacted last July and is intended by the federal government to ensure “that corporations in all sectors, including digital corporations, pay their fair share of tax on the money they earn by doing business in Canada.”
As Trump himself notes in his Truth Social post, the European Union is similarly taxing the U.S. over digital services. Indeed, Canada’s DST was initially spurred by negotiations over a global tax accord between Canada, the U.S. and other countries. While the DST was pushed during the former Justin Trudeau government, Prime Minister Mark Carney’s Liberals confirmed earlier this month that it will proceed with the levy.
This means that tech giants will have to start paying the tax on June 30, and this applies retroactively to 2022. In total, this will leave U.S. companies with a US $2 billion (about C$2.745 billion) at the end of the month.
It remains to seen how the Carney government might respond to Trump’s new threats. It should be noted that Trump has repeatedly threatened various tariffs against Canada but soon agreed to a pause.
Last year, U.S. goods trade with Canada came out to approximately US$762 billion (about C$1.046 trillion), according to the office of the U.S. trade representative.
Image credit: Shutterstock
Via: The Toronto Star
MobileSyrup may earn a commission from purchases made via our links, which helps fund the journalism we provide free on our website. These links do not influence our editorial content. Support us here.
