Trump zwang Kanada, seine Steuer auf digitale Dienstleistungen abzuschaffen – aber hat er Carney vor einer schlechten Politik bewahrt?
https://nationalpost.com/news/trump-forced-canada-to-scrap-its-digital-services-tax-but-did-he-save-carney-from-bad-policy
4 Kommentare
Yes, because why would we want any revenue from foreign corporations operating on Canadian soil and returning almost no value in exchange for access to our market? Let’s go to an American think-tank for their thoughts on the matter.
Ofcourse, it was a pretty bad policy, and kinda sucks that we had to be arm twisted to withdraw it. Plus my trying to enforce it and then backing down, we lost some leverage in the talks. it would have been better to just have the threat available, and any agreement would have included Canada scrapping it for good.
This is pure extraction industry. It drives down the dollar on balance of trade. It creates almost no jobs. And it removes capital from circulation. It’s basically no different then dumping steel and the damages it does for the long term political economy. I don’t understand how it’s bad policy? It’s only bad cause people want to consume without limits and not worry about Walmart economics that in the long term makes you poorer and lacking agency. Culture requires retaining surplus. An advanced economy requires retaining surplus. Why are we kissing the boot that takes the surplus and provides very little except monopolistic services that are designed to get worse over time once scale is achieved?
If the US elites hate something this strongly you know it’s a good idea. It’s only bad policy if you’re ignorant to the facts or don’t care about Canada as a cohesive state. It’s not a tax it’s a tariff.
So they threatened a new tax and then scrapped it as a concession? Good job! I can’t say I know how that would have worked but I assume any additional costs to the providers would have just been passed on to the consumers?