Trump boasts of making Canada give in and targets Europe

Canada has "given in" to Donald Trump by abandoning its tax on tech giants, which led the American president to break off trade negotiations with its neighbor, the White House said Monday in Washington.

"It's very simple. Prime Minister Mark Carney and Canada caved in to President Trump and the United States of America. President Trump knows how to negotiate and knows he runs the best country and the best economy on the planet," White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said at a press conference. "It was a mistake for Canada to want to implement this tax that would have affected our tech companies here in the United States," she added, asserting that "all countries need to have good trade relations with the United States."

Canada announced on Sunday that it was abandoning its digital services tax (DST), which was due to come into effect on Monday, and that it was resuming trade negotiations with the United States, which Donald Trump broke off two days earlier.

Decided in 2024, this 3% levy on revenues from online advertising, sales platforms, social networks, and the sale of personal data, particularly targeted American digital heavyweights Google, Apple, Meta (Facebook), Amazon, and Microsoft. They are accused of taking advantage of the intangible nature of their business to evade taxes. Donald Trump on Friday called this tax a "direct and obvious blow" to the United States.

"Because of this outrageous tax, we are ending ALL trade discussions with Canada, effective immediately," he wrote on his Truth Social platform, adding that the United States would inform Canada within seven days of the level of tariffs it would impose. He then repeated his rhetoric over the weekend about Canada being the 51st U.S. state.

The American president also criticizes the European Union (EU) for having implemented such a tax, and uses it as a lever for negotiation in trade discussions with the European bloc.