‘It was a bargaining chip’: Foreign affairs expert on Canada rescinding digital services tax
After the federal government repealed a digital services tax that targeted U.S. tech companies, an expert on foreign affairs said it was more important for Canada to secure an economic and security deal for Canadian workers and businesses than to keep the tax in place.
Colin Robertson, a former Canadian diplomat and vice president and fellow at the Canadian Global Affairs Institute, says the move to implement the tax and then rescind it was part of the negotiation process.
“It was a bargaining chip,” Robertson told BNN Bloomberg in a Monday interview. “It was certainly something I thought we would probably give up. Normally, what you do in negotiations is you make your concessions at the end.”
