(Adds context)
WASHINGTON, Jan 12 (Reuters) – Deputy U.S. Trade
Representative Jayme White expressed Washington’s ongoing
concern about Canada’s proposed digital services tax in talks on
Wednesday with Canada’s deputy trade minister, David Morrison,
USTR said in a statement.
White spoke with Morrison ahead of the first meeting of
trade deputies under the U.S.-Mexico-Canada (USMCA) trade
agreement enacted in 2020.
White also stressed the importance of Canada’s fully meeting
its USMCA commitments, including its allocation of dairy
tariff-rate quotas and home-shopping, USTR said.
Washington said in December it would consider “all options”
under its trade agreements and domestic statutes if Canada
proceeds with its proposed tax on corporations providing digital
services, but gave no details.
The United States in October withdrew its threat of tariffs
against five European countries over their digital services
taxes as part of a deal to manage the transition to a new global
tax regime for large highly profitable corporations such as
Alphabet Inc’s Google and Facebook Inc .
Canada unveiled the proposed measure in April, saying it
would stay in place until major nations come up with a
coordinated approach on taxing the big digital companies.
The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development
has since agreed on a common approach to ensure such companies
pay their share of taxes, but a treaty to enforce this has yet
to be implemented.
USTR said White and Morrison agreed to continue to
collaborate on addressing the various issue, and maintain an
open line of communication.
(Reporting by Andrea Shalal; Editing by Leslie Adler and
Richard Chang)
(([email protected]; +1 202-815-7432;))
Keywords: USA TRADE/CANADA (UPDATE 1)
The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.
www.nasdaq.com