Letter From the Great White North

[Noogies]

Here's something I don't understand about my own government:

The DJT administration raised a big stink about Canada's pending digital services tax. Trump appeared to be surprised by it, even though it's been in the works for over a year. At any rate, the administration used it as a lever to cut off tariff negotiations with Canada and demand more concessions. When Carney announced suspension of the tax, Trump and his henchpeople crowed that Canada had "caved" (which is, I suppose, at least somewhat true) and declared victory, thus allowing negotiation to resume.

The part I don't get? Carney isn't a dumb guy and neither are his cabinet appointees. How did nobody see this coming and pre-emptively suspend the tax pending negotiations? It could have been used as a cudgel in talks against The Trump admin's demands but instead Canada is resuming talks at a significant disadvantage.

I'm not often the smartest guy in the room. Is this time the exception or is there something I'm missing?

[donquixote99]

They hadn't really connected the tax to the trade and tariff issues in their minds, just thought of it as a new tax they were ready to put on, after a lot of process, and had every right to.

[Noogies]

Originally Posted by donquixote99

They hadn't really connected the tax to the trade and tariff issues in their minds, just thought of it as a new tax they were ready to put on, after a lot of process, and had every right to.

Good point, however somebody should have been aware enough to realize that the optics were really shitty.