Canadian officials trying to work towards tariff trade deal behind the scenes
Watch
CTV News' Jeremie Charron says the federal government maintains that negotiations between Canada and the U.S. surrounding trade are still ongoing.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
CTV News
20 minutes ago
- CTV News
Bombardier secures US$1.7 billion aircraft order with service deal
Flags fly in front of signage at the Bombardier plant in Montreal, Tuesday, Feb. 4, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Christinne Muschi Bombardier said on Monday it had received an order for 50 of its Challenger and Global aircraft, alongside a service agreement, valued collectively at $1.7 billion, with deliveries scheduled to commence in 2027. Bombardier said the customer, who has chosen to remain anonymous, would hold 70 new aircraft purchase options, which, if exercised, would increase the combined value of the aircraft and service agreements to over $4 billion. Earlier this year, the company said it expects new order activity to be slower through the first half of the year and to pick up after that. The Montreal-based company said in May that it expects to deliver more than 150 business jets this year, compared with 146 in 2024. Reporting by Gursimran Kaur in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel
CTV News
21 minutes ago
- CTV News
Canada U-turn leaves Europe in the lurch on U.S. tech taxes
Prime Minister Mark Carney walks with U.S. President Donald Trump after a group photo at the G7 Summit, Monday, June 16, 2025, in Kananaskis, Canada. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein) PARIS -- Canada's dropping of a tax on U.S. tech giants under the pressure of Donald Trump is fuelling concern about the future of such levies in other countries, particularly in Europe. 'Currently, about half of all European OECD countries have either announced, proposed, or implemented' a digital services tax pending global action, said the Tax Foundation, a think tank which supports the introduction of such taxes. But the future of such measures is unclear after the Group of Seven nations agreed Saturday to exempt US multinational companies from a global minimum tax imposed by other countries. The move sparked a pointed reaction from Nobel prize winning economist Joseph Stiglitz. 'This is about more than trade -- it's about whether democratically elected governments can regulate and tax powerful corporations or whether tech billionaires can dictate policy through political proxies,' he said. Who has imposed such a tax? Austria, Brazil, Britain, France, India, Italy, Spain and Turkiye are a dozen large countries which have imposed or planned to impose special taxes on big tech firms. The objective is to force them to pay taxes where they carry out business as well as to counter the tax optimization strategies they often practice. Generally, the taxes target sales revenue and focus essentially on US firms like Alphabet (Google), Amazon, Apple, Facebook (Meta) and Microsoft. But they differ from one country to another in terms of sales that are taxed, with some targeting advertising revenue and others sales of data. 'Most of the proposed or adopted rates are in the 2-5 per cent range,' of the revenue stream targeted, according to analysts at the Canadian Tax Foundation. Most nations adopted the taxes pending a global agreement which would see multinational companies pay some taxes in countries where they operate, but the prospects for such a deal now look bleak. What these taxes generate The taxes tend to raise more money year after year, according to the latest data from the EU Tax Observatory, which dates from June 2023. Britain, France, India, Italy and Turkiye have seen steady increases in the revenue their taxes generate. Both Britain and France each raised approximately US$1.1 billion last year via their digital services taxes. Italy saw its revenue from the tax jump by 90 per cent from 2021 to over $530 million last year, according to local media. But Spain, which hoped to raise more than a billion per year via its tax, only raised only around $350 million in 2023, according to La Vanguardia daily. Other dominoes to fall? Before Canada, India had already halted in April its six per cent tax on online advertising by foreign firms against the background of trade talks with the United States. The taxes may fall elsewhere. While Britain has reached a trade deal with the United States to avoid the worst tariffs, it wants to go further and has refused to rule out a modification or elimination of its digital services tax. EU nations so far haven't indicated that the tax is on the table. A German government spokesman said Monday that Canada's dropping its tech tax had 'absolutely no bearing' on Berlin's position as it considers it considers its tax policies. But worries remain. National digital service taxes are 'vulnerable to economic and political threats -- particularly from the US, which has historically protected its digital multinationals from fair taxation abroad,' said the Tax Justice Network, a coalition of researchers and activists. By Ali Bekhtaoui with AFP foreign bureaus
Globe and Mail
22 minutes ago
- Globe and Mail
Mark Carney promised internal free trade by Canada Day. Is that enough?
Daniel Schwanen is senior vice-president of the C.D. Howe Institute. U.S. President Donald Trump's tariff threats have focused much needed attention on making trade within Canada easier. Prime Minister Mark Carney made a promise soon after the election: To have free trade by Canada Day. To that end, the federal Free Trade and Labour Mobility in Canada Act, part of Bill C-5 which became law on June 26, aims at promoting the free movement of goods and services interprovincially. Under the Act, the federal government will recognize provincial requirements such as product standards as meeting federal requirements, when both levels of government regulate the same aspect of a good or service traded interprovincially. Federal regulatory bodies must also recognize provincial regulatory bodies' authorizations to practise an occupation as satisfying their own comparable requirements. For Mr. Carney, it's a promise kept. But helpful though these provisions would be, they are not enough for Canada to truly have internal free trade. Mr. Carney's bill should be viewed as only part of a broader project. Opinion: Internal free trade by Canada Day? It'll take longer than that A guide to The Globe's Canada Day coverage By itself, recognition by federal regulators of provincial requirements as equivalent to their own does not facilitate trade or labour mobility between provincial jurisdictions with different standards and approval or certification processes that impede trade or labour mobility. For that, the provinces need to get in on the action. Helpfully, legislation in Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, Ontario and Manitoba adopted this year offers to recognize other provinces' standards and approvals processes when other provinces offer the same treatment to their goods and services. In turn, this has led to agreement between provinces (e.g. Ontario and Saskatchewan, Ontario and Alberta) to open trade in this way. Western provinces already have a similar arrangement in place between them under the 2010 New West Partnership Agreement. But even countrywide mutual recognition will not create an integrated market. For that, we need actual reconciliation of some standards and requirements. Even with mutual recognition, a truck transport company moving goods across provincial borders must still conform to many transportation rules unique to the province it is in – it cannot transpose them from the province it originally set out from or the provinces it has driven through. Similarly, construction or mining companies must operate according to the laws and regulations of the province they are in – not according to those in their home province. That is why harmonization among provinces is important. For example, Ontario harmonized over 1,700 technical requirements with the new national construction code in January. Single sets of rules for safety equipment in construction or mining, or for truck tire dimensions, are further examples on which the slow but sure mechanisms of the Regulatory Cooperation and Reconciliation Table operating under the 2018 Canadian Free Trade Agreement can help. One of the valuable features of the CFTA was its use of a 'negative list,' an approach pioneered in Canada by the 2007 Trade, Investment and Labour Mobility Agreement between British Columbia and Alberta. This approach requires parties to list the specific sectors or measures for which the rules of open trade, investment or mobility do not apply – meaning that remaining discriminatory barriers are relatively transparent. Helpfully, the federal government and many provinces have reduced or eliminated their exceptions under the CFTA. Other important pieces of the internal trade puzzle that need to be solved include greater freedom for Canadians to purchase products, such as alcoholic beverages, from producers across the country, while still conforming to tax and other rules in their province of residence. Only Manitoba allows such sales now, although a 2024 agreement between Alberta and British Columbia allowing B.C. wineries to sell direct to Albertan consumers shows a path forward. Canada's market cannot be truly open to products from across the country until allocation of production quotas by province under our supply managed systems is ended. Given the need to 'de-risk' our economic prospects in an uncertain world, Canadian governments should continue to expand mutual recognition, remove discriminatory barriers, and push for greater harmonization of rules affecting businesses and workers. All Canadians should have access to economic opportunities regardless of where they emerge in Canada – and ultimately all Canadian governments are responsible to make sure that they do not thwart access to such opportunities.
