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U.S. urges Canada to abandon digital tax plans

Published

1 year ago

July 7, 2023

WASHINGTON –

Canada, the United States and Mexico wrapped up a two-day status report on their shared continental trade agreement Friday as the deal that replaced NAFTA passed its three-year anniversary.

There are three more years to go before a required review in 2026 that has the potential to scuttle the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, but International Trade Minister Mary Ng doesn’t sound worried.

The Free Trade Commission meetings, this year hosted by Mexico, are an annual exercise to ensure the deal is being implemented as designed — and to hear Ng tell it, each year offers more proof that the USMCA is worth saving.

“This is the largest trading relationship in the world, and we are working together to be more competitive,” Ng said in an interview after the meetings wrapped up.

Ensuring the three countries can get past the 2026 review for USMCA, known in Canada as CUSMA, will guarantee a full 16 years of prosperity until the current terms of the agreement expire in 2036, she said.

“We all recognize there’s a date in 2026, but 16 years, 2036 — that’s the goal.”

Much of the discussion focused on “under-the-hood stuff,” she said, including efforts to ensure small and medium-sized businesses are better integrated into the value chains the agreement is meant to foster.

It also focused on assessing efforts to introduce labour reforms in Mexico, where Ng said Canada’s labour unions have been integral in helping to ensure more workplaces are meeting the standards set out in the deal.

The union certification process, once a six-year ordeal, now takes only six months, she said, with some 10,000 new collective agreements in place to benefit an estimated 500,000 newly unionized workers.

During bilateral discussions Thursday, Ng and U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai exchanged long-entrenched positions on the usual array of irritants, including Canada’s plan to implement a digital services tax next January.

The measure is aimed squarely at digital enterprises that are based outside Canada — many of them headquartered in the U.S. — that generate revenues from the engagement, content and data of their Canadian users.

Canada has delayed implementing the three per cent levy until 2024 in hopes of waiting out a separate but similar international digital tax regime, spearheaded by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development.

Separate U.S. and Canadian summaries of the bilateral meeting featured Tai urging Ng to abandon the tax plan, and Ng urging Tai to sign on to the OECD measure, which it has yet to do.

“Canada was very much a part of that” OECD effort, as was the U.S., Ng noted. “We all negotiated this, so let’s work as hard as we can to get this implemented.”

Tai also called on Ng to make good on a USMCA commitment to allow home-shopping channels like QVC to operate in Canada — an effort the minister said is well underway and close to fruition.

“We’ve made good progress — this is one of those files that I would classify as ‘well advanced,”‘ she said.

“We are working to implement that part of the agreement … and that work continues.”

Ng said she also pressed Tai on two other outstanding issues: duties on Canadian exports of softwood lumber, and the question of whether the U.S. will abide by a tribunal ruling on automotive parts.

A dispute panel ruled late last year that the U.S. interpretation of foreign content rules for autos was “inconsistent” with the terms of the deal.

The USMCA increased the allowed “regional value content” for automotive parts to 75 per cent, up from 62 per cent, as part of an effort to give all three countries a bigger piece of each other’s auto manufacturing sector.

In a core component such as an engine, the long-standing concept of “roll-up” allows such a part to be considered as having 100 per cent North American origins once the regional threshold of its various elements is met.

It’s an essential step to determine which vehicles are deemed duty-free. The U.S. had tried to argue for a more rigid interpretation of the agreement’s language, but the panel rejected that argument outright.

Since then, the U.S. has been largely silent on how it intends to respond, and officials in Tai’s office offered no clues during a telephone briefing Wednesday about whether the meetings would produce any clarity.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 7, 2023.

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Allen nets shutout as Devils burn Oilers 3-0

Published

5 hours ago

November 4, 2024

Anne Joseph

EDMONTON – Jake Allen made 31 saves for his second shutout of the season and 26th of his career as the New Jersey Devils closed out their Western Canadian road trip with a 3-0 victory over the Edmonton Oilers on Monday.

Jesper Bratt had a goal and an assist and Stefan Noesen and Timo Meier also scored for the Devils (8-5-2) who have won three of their last four on the heels on a four-game losing skid.

The Oilers (6-6-1) had their modest two-game winning streak snapped.

Calvin Pickard made 13 stops between the pipes for Edmonton.

TAKEAWAYS

Devils: In addition to his goal, Bratt picked up his 12th assist of the young season to give him nine points in his last eight games and now 15 points overall. Nico Hischier remains in the team lead, picking up an assist of his own to give him 16 points for the campaign. He has a point in all but four games this season.

Oilers: Forward Leon Draisaitl was held pointless after recording six points in his previous two games and nine points in his previous four. Draisaitl usually has strong showings against the Devils, coming into the contest with an eight-game point streak against New Jersey and 11 goals in 17 games.

KEY MOMENT

New Jersey took a 2-0 lead on the power play with 3:26 remaining in the second period as Hischier made a nice feed into the slot to Bratt, who wired his third of the season past Pickard.

KEY RETURN?

Oilers star forward and captain Connor McDavid took part in the optional morning skate for the Oilers, leading to hopes that he may be back sooner rather than later. McDavid has been expected to be out for two to three weeks with an ankle injury suffered during the first shift of last Monday’s loss in Columbus.

OILERS DEAL FOR D-MAN

The Oilers have acquired defenceman Ronnie Attard from the Philadelphia Flyers in exchange for defenceman Ben Gleason.

The 6-foot-3 Attard has spent the past three season in the Flyers organization seeing action in 29 career games. The 25-year-old right-shot defender and Western Michigan University grad was originally selected by Philadelphia in the third round of the 2019 NHL Entry Draft. Attard will report to the Oilers’ AHL affiliate in Bakersfield.

UP NEXT

Devils: Host the Montreal Canadiens on Thursday.

Oilers: Host the Vegas Golden Knights on Wednesday.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 4, 2024.

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Mahomes throws 3 TD passes, unbeaten Chiefs beat Buccaneers 30-24 in OT

Published

5 hours ago

November 4, 2024

Anne Joseph

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Patrick Mahomes threw for 291 yards and three touchdowns, and Kareem Hunt pounded into the end zone from two yards out in overtime to give the unbeaten Kansas City Chiefs a 30-24 win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Monday night.

DeAndre Hopkins had two touchdown receptions for the Chiefs (8-0), who drove through the rain for two fourth-quarter scores to take a 24-17 lead with 4:17 left. But then Kansas City watched as Baker Mayfield led the Bucs the other way in the final minute, hitting Ryan Miller in the end zone with 27 seconds to go in regulation time.

Tampa Bay (4-5) elected to kick the extra point and force overtime, rather than go for a two-point conversion and the win. And it cost the Buccaneers when Mayfield called tails and the coin flip was heads. Mahomes and the Chiefs took the ball, he was 5-for-5 passing on their drive in overtime, and Hunt finished his 106-yard rushing day with the deciding TD plunge.

Travis Kelce had 14 catches for 100 yards with girlfriend Taylor Swift watching from a suite, and Hopkins finished with eight catches for 86 yards as the Chiefs ran their winning streak to 14 dating to last season. They became the sixth Super Bowl champion to start 8-0 the following season.

Mayfield finished with 200 yards and two TDs passing for the Bucs, who have lost four of their last five.

It was a memorable first half for two players who had been waiting to play in Arrowhead Stadium.

The Bucs’ Rachaad White grew up about 10 minutes away in a tough part of Kansas City, but his family could never afford a ticket for him to see a game. He wound up on a circuitous path through Division II Nebraska-Kearney and a California junior college to Arizona State, where he eventually became of a third-round pick of Tampa Bay in the 2022 draft.

Two year later, White finally got into Arrowhead — and the end zone. He punctuated his seven-yard scoring run in the second quarter, which gave the Bucs a 7-3 lead, by nearly tossing the football into the second deck.

Then it was Hopkins’ turn in his first home game since arriving in Kansas City from a trade with the Titans.

The three-time All-Pro, who already had caught four passes, reeled in a third-down heave from Mahomes amid triple coverage for a 35-yard gain inside the Tampa Bay five-yard line. Three plays later, Mahomes found him in the back of the end zone, and Hopkins celebrated his first TD with the Chiefs with a dance from “Remember the Titans.”

Tampa Bay tried to seize control with consecutive scoring drives to start the second half. The first ended with a TD pass to Cade Otton, the latest tight end to shred the Chiefs, and Chase McLaughlin’s 47-yard field goal gave the Bucs a 17-10 lead.

The Chiefs answered in the fourth quarter. Mahomes marched them through the rain 70 yards for a tying touchdown pass, which he delivered to Samaje Perine while landing awkwardly and tweaking his left ankle, and then threw a laser to Hopkins on third-and-goal from the Buccaneers’ five-yard line to give Kansas City the lead.

Tampa Bay promptly went three-and-out, but its defence got the ball right back, and this time Mayfield calmly led his team down field. His capped the drive with a touchdown throw to Miller — his first career TD catch — with 27 seconds to go, and Tampa Bay elected to play for overtime.

UP NEXT

Buccaneers: Host the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday.

Chiefs: Host the Denver Broncos on Sunday.

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AP NFL:

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NHL roundup: Kuemper helps visiting Kings shut out Predators 3-0

Published

5 hours ago

November 4, 2024

Anne Joseph

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Darcy Kuemper made 16 saves for his first shutout of the season and 32nd overall, helping the Los Angeles Kings beat the Nashville Predators 3-0 on Monday night.

Adrian Kempe had a goal and an assist and Anze Kopitar and Kevin Fiala also scored. The Kings have won two of their last three.

Juuse Saros made 24 saves for the Predators. They are 1-2-1 in their last four.

Kopitar opened the scoring with 6:36 remaining in the opening period. Saros denied the Kings captain’s first shot, but Kopitar collected the rebound below the goal line and banked it off the netminder’s skate.

Fiala, a former Predator, made it 2-0 35 seconds into the third.

The Kings held Nashville to just three third-period shots on goal, the first coming with 3:55 remaining and Saros pulled for an extra attacker.

Elsewhere in the NHL on Monday:

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DEVILS 3 OILERS 0

EDMONTON, Alta. (AP) — Jake Allen made 31 saves for his second shutout of the season and 26th of his NHL career, helping the New Jersey Devils close their western Canadian road trip with a 3-0 victory over the Edmonton Oilers.

Jesper Bratt had a goal and an assist and Stefan Noesen and Timo Meier also scored. The Devils improved to 8-5-2. They have won three of their last four after a four-game skid.

Calvin Pickard made 13 saves for Edmonton. The Oilers had won two straight.

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