Money U.S. trade groups raise alarm over Canadian digital services tax

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Fiery debate over massage parlours dominates St. John's public meetingVoices from two camps elbowed for real estate at Wednesday night's public meeting: those defending council's decision to allow new parlours, and those asking the city to pump the brakes until new rules are introduced to ward off potential violence against those inside.

The Canadian plan would also undermine new digital trade measures included in the USMCA trade agreement which was signed by the leaders of The agreement has been ratified by Mexico, but must still be approved by the legislatures of Canada and the United States. U . S . trade groups raise alarm

Customer service . The new punitive tax comes on top of preliminary countervailing tariffs averaging 6.53 per cent levied in January. The Commerce Department focused its investigations of the groundwood issue on three Canadian companies, which it refers to as mandatory respondents.

© Reuters/Kevin Lamarque A cyclist passes U.S. and Canadian flags placed side-by-side on the Eisenhower Executive Office Building next to the White House in Washington

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - More than a dozen U.S. trade groups and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce on Friday urged the Trump administration to block a French-style digital services tax proposed by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau during October's election.

The groups said the tax would undermine U.S. investment in Canada's technology market and threaten Canada's compliance with commitments under the World Trade Organization, the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), and the United-States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA).

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The debate over whether the European Union (EU) should adopt a uniform tax on digital services has That provision of U . S . law allows for an investigation of unfair trade practices and avenues for Because of that, a digital tax of this nature is likely not to just tax a group of arbitrarily defined digital

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"We urge you to engage rapidly with your Canadian counterparts to discourage them from proceeding with this proposal," the groups wrote in a letter addressed to U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow.

Trudeau's Liberal party during the campaign proposed a digital services tax similar to a French plan which led to criticism and the threat of retaliatory tariffs by the United States.

France and the United States are still working out their differences over the tax, which U.S. officials say unfairly targets U.S. companies such as Facebook , Google and Amazon .

The Liberals called for digital companies with worldwide revenues of at least C$1 billion and Canadian revenues of more than C$40 million to be subject to a new 3% tax on revenue generated through the sale of online ads and user data. The tax would take effect on April 1, 2020.

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A full-scale tax reform could cut or limit specific tax breaks as a way of lowering overall tax rates. President Barack Obama has said he will raise taxes for wealthy Americans, and trade groups representing both employers and financial services firms have voiced concerns that the tax benefits

Trudeau is trying to form a minority government after the Liberals lost their majority in last month's election.

"We are concerned that the scoping of this proposal purposely targets, and would almost exclusively impact, U.S.-based companies," the Internet Association, Entertainment Software Association and other trade groups said.

"Global tax rules should be updated for the digital age, but discriminatory taxes against U.S. firms are not the right approach," they wrote in the letter.

The Canadian plan would also undermine new digital trade measures included in the USMCA trade agreement which was signed by the leaders of Canada, the United States and Mexico last year, the groups said. The agreement has been ratified by Mexico, but must still be approved by the legislatures of Canada and the United States.

(Reporting by Andrea Shalal; Editing by Grant McCool)