An American senator calls Prime Minister Mark Carney to act quickly to repeal the tax on digital services.
“You all have, and that’s all your honor,” said you would not get it. I asked Canada to act as quickly as possible to adopt a law in parliament guaranteeing its final suppression, “said Ron Wyden, Oregon Democratic senator on Monday, at the media after a meeting between Mr. Carney and a bipartite delegation of four American senators in Ottawa.
“The Prime Minister was receptive to this idea,” added Wyden. He said he would take care of it in the fall. »»
Carney announced at the end of June that he would remove the tax, just before the deadline for significant retroactive payment which would have cost around $ 2 billion to large American technological companies.
This decision occurred after the American president, Donald Trump, announced the suspension of bilateral trade negotiations with Canada because of this tax, which would have imposed a 3 % levy on technology giants that generate revenues thanks to Canadian users, such as Google, Amazon and Uber.
Although the Canada Revenue Agency does not require payments for the tax, it indicated that it would make no refund to people who have already paid until the Parliament adopts a law officially ending the tax. Google also said that it would await the adoption of this law before reimbursing customers who have paid a surcharge imposed last year in response to the tax.
The House of Commons is currently on summer vacation and should resume its work on September 15.
Senators were in Ottawa to discuss the current trade conflict between Canada and the United States.
In addition to Mr. Wyden, the delegation included Democratic Senators Maggie Hassan, New Hampshire, and Catherine Cortez Masto, Nevada, as well as Republican Lisa Murkowski, Alaska.
Carney, who did not speak to journalists after the meeting, described the discussion of “very good”.
An opinion on the media of the Finance Committee in the United States indicated that four senators planned “to reaffirm the importance of links between the United States and Canada” during meetings with Mr. Carney and other senior officials.
In a letter addressed to Mr. Carney on July 10, US President Donald Trump threatened to impose customs duties of 35 % on Canadian products by 1is August, thus fixing a new deadline for commercial negotiations which were initially to conclude this Monday.
Last week, Carney told journalists that a trade agreement with the United States would likely include customs duties and that he expected discussions with the United States to intensify before the deadline of 1is august.
The American secretary of trade, Howard Lunick, said on Sunday on American television that Canada would pay customs duties if it did not open its market in the United States.
