United States Increases Efforts to Stop Ottawa’s Digital Services Tax
The federal government says it’s in close contact with its American partners as the Biden administration escalates efforts to halt Canada’s tax on large foreign digital services companies.
The Office of the United States Trade Representative has requested dispute settlement consultations with Ottawa under the Canada-United States-Mexico trade agreement.
“The United States opposes unilateral digital service taxes that discriminate against U.S. companies,” said U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai in a news release Friday.
Americans have been critical of the three-per-cent levy on foreign tech giants that generate revenue from Canadian users. It means the companies will have to pay taxes on that revenue in Canada.
Tai called the tax discriminatory and said it is inconsistent with Canada’s commitments not to treat U.S. businesses less favourably than Canadian ones.
The U.S. trade representative reiterated those concerns during a meeting with Canada’s International Trade Minister Mary Ng in Washington, D.C., earlier this week.