Updated June 27, 2025 at 2:04 PM MDT
The U.S. is terminating all trade talks with Canada as Canada proceeds with a digital services tax that would apply to several major U.S. tech companies, the president said in a Friday social media post.
"Based on this egregious Tax, we are hereby terminating ALL discussions on Trade with Canada, effective immediately," Trump wrote on Truth Social. "We will let Canada know the Tariff that they will be paying to do business with the United States of America within the next seven day period."
The news that the U.S. is ending trade talks with Canada comes after 24 hours of various tariff updates from the White House, including the announcement of a new agreement with China and an acknowledgement that a July 8 tariff deadline may be pushed back.
The flurry of news is the latest in several chaotic months of back-and-forth tariff announcements followed by subsequent adjustments. Imposing higher tariffs on goods from other countries was a major campaign promise of Trump's, which he framed as an effort to bring manufacturing back to the U.S. and raise revenue. However, those goals conflict with each other, and tariffs also often burden consumers with higher prices.
The president's Canada post refers to a digital services tax set to go into effect on June 30. That measure would tax multinational tech companies for revenue collected — for example from advertising — from providing services to Canadian users. Several European countries have imposed similar taxes.
At the G7 summit in Canada last week, Trump and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney had said they wanted to negotiate a tariff deal in the next 30 days. That came after months of tension between the two countries, kicked off when Trump on his first day in office announced that he wanted to put 25% tariffs on Canadian goods. Months of retaliations and animosity followed, including Trump repeatedly suggesting that Canada become the 51st state.
The post about Canada came hours after Trump told reporters that a self-imposed July 9 deadline for establishing tariff levels for most countries might be delayed.
"We can do whatever we want. We can extend it, we can make it shorter. I'd like to make it shorter," he said of the deadline. "I'd like to just send letters out to everybody – 'Congratulations. You're paying 25 percent.' "
That deadline applies to tariffs on goods from nearly every country, which Trump announced on April 2, with some of those tariffs exceeding 40%. Days later, he announced a 90-day "pause," bringing the tariffs down to 10%.
That "pause" is set to end on July 9, raising questions about what happens after that. Trump said he would reach longer-term individual tariff deals with countries during the 90-day period, but the only deal announced so far has been with the UK, signed last week at the G7 summit.
On Thursday, Trump also announced a trade agreement with China, which officials later said was an agreement on a framework for a deal and not a finalized agreement on tariffs and other trade issues like rare earth minerals.
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick confirmed Thursday evening on Bloomberg TV that China would "deliver rare earths to us." He added that subsequently, "we'll take down our countermeasures."
In a statement, China's Ministry of Commerce also acknowledged that "further details of the framework" have been established.
"China will, in accordance with the law, review and approve eligible export applications for controlled items," they wrote. "In turn, the United States will lift a series of restrictive measures it had imposed on China."
The base tariffs on Chinese goods have the potential to be globally destabilizing, and at one point reached 145%.
At a meeting in Geneva last month, U.S. and Chinese officials announced they had reached a temporary deal that would bring U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods to 30%, with an Aug. 12 deadline to reach a more permanent agreement.
The high tariffs China and the U.S. imposed on each other's goods rattled markets as American consumers faced higher prices on a wide array of products, like car seats and clothing, while American farmers feared Chinese consumers would buy fewer of their now more expensive food exports.
Copyright 2025 NPR
