{"id":52490,"date":"2026-08-26T20:44:21","date_gmt":"2026-08-27T00:44:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/prefblog.com\/?p=52490"},"modified":"2026-08-26T21:04:11","modified_gmt":"2026-08-27T01:04:11","slug":"august-26-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/prefblog.com\/?p=52490","title":{"rendered":"August 26, 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

I was pleased to see the following<\/a>:<\/p>\n

When European Union head Ursula von der Leyen sat alongside Donald Trump at his Turnberry golf resort in Scotland last year, she promised Europeans that accepting a blanket 15 per cent U.S. tariff on EU exports would buy the continent “predictability and stability.”<\/p>\n

Some critics now see the trade deal as a one-sided capitulation that instead paved the way for an ongoing cycle of American economic coercion.<\/p>\n

First came U.S. efforts to reclassify certain European industrial goods to impose higher tariffs. Now, a fresh battle has emerged over European efforts to levy a digital services tax on U.S. tech giants \u2014 a dispute that echoes Washington’s recent attempts to dictate tax terms to Ottawa.<\/p>\n

No sooner was the Turnberry deal ratified by the European Parliament than Trump was on Truth Social, threatening to override the entire accord by slapping 100 per cent tariffs on any European nation that implements or expands tech taxes.<\/p>\n

As European resistance to Trump\u2019s demands stiffens, some lawmakers are looking at Mark Carney\u2019s dramatic exit from the U.S. trade table not as a reckless gamble but as a lesson in how to stand up to a bully.<\/p>\n

Former French ambassador to the U.S. Gerard Araud posted that “Canada should show the way to the EU: with Trump, only firmness pays off.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I thought we gave up on the Digital Sales Tax too easily – lots of US states have one<\/a>! We should be bringing it back in and coordinating our efforts, rates and definitions with the EU.<\/p>\n

Strange goings-on in the preferred share market today, with the index plummetting at the close with TXPR (price) down 41bp on the day – on nothing but little puffs of air: <\/p>\n