Digital issues will stay sticking point in U.S. trade talks: former negotiator

While digital issues will continue to be a source of trade tensions with the U.S., Canada can gain strength if it teams up with other allies that have similar interests, Canada’s former chief trade negotiator said Monday.

Steve Verheul said the United States won’t simply drop issues like the Online News Act and digital sovereignty that it has identified as trade irritants.

“They’ve listed them as fairly fundamental concerns that they have and tend to pursue,” he said at the Canadian Chapter of the International Institute of Communications conference in Ottawa.

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Verheul said the cultural exemption Canada has under the current trade agreement can only go so far because it allows the Americans to automatically retaliate if it is used.

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“The Online Streaming Act, the Online News Act, the sovereign cloud issue, control over data in Canada more broadly, that’s where the real battleground going forward with the U.S. is going to be on these kinds of issues,” he said.

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Verheul said the United States views policies targeting big tech companies as discriminatory. He said it’s difficult to design non-discriminatory policies because of how many of the largest digital companies are American.

He said Canada needs to work more closely with allies like the European Union to develop a more unified position on digital issues.

Verheul said while Canada “needs to to maintain some level of independence on these issues,” it also must work with other countries that have similar interests.

“And we need to find some ways to move forward,” he added.

Canada cut off the latest round of trade negotiations with the United States in August citing several reasons, including American demands related to rules about Canadian content on streaming platforms. The CRTC is in the process of implementing those rules under the Online Streaming Act.