As U.S. threatens retaliation over digital taxes, Canada waits for OECD talks

As the U.S. continues to threaten other countries with retaliation if they proceed with a digital services tax, Canada's trade minister says the question of how to ensure profitable search engines, social media platforms and online retailers pay their fair share can only be tackled on a multilateral basis.

France is preparing to target internet companies like Google, Amazon and Facebook with a three per cent tax on the revenues from their digital business in that country. Canada may eventually follow France's lead — but for now, it's not prepared to go it alone.

Speaking while in transit to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland Wednesday, Small Business Minister Mary Ng said her government is looking at this issue in terms of what's in the best interests of Canadian businesses.

"I do think it's important to tackle this on a multilateral basis," she said. "You do need to work through those processes."...

This was excerpted from the 22 January 2020 edition of CBC News.