Mōrena and welcome to your Tuesday recap of global business and political news.
First, the United States will resume trade negotiations with Canada after Prime Minister Mark Carney scrapped a digital services tax on US technology companies, the Guardian reported.
White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett said that decision “absolutely” meant both sides would resume talks.
The tax would have applied to companies such as Meta, Amazon, Google parent Alphabet, Uber, and Airbnb. The tax was meant to prevent US technology companies from avoiding tax on revenue generated from Canadians.
US President Donald Trump called the digital services tax a “direct and blatant attack on our country”.
Meanwhile, the European Union could accept a trade arrangement with the US that included a 10% universal tariff on many EU exports, Bloomberg reported.
But the bloc wanted the US to commit to lower rates on essential sectors such as pharmaceuticals, alcohol, semiconductors, and aircraft.
The EU has until July 9 to strike a trade arrangement before tariffs on almost all the bloc’s exports to the US rise to 50%, Bloomberg noted.
And a deal to cut tariffs between the US and UK has started, giving UK vehicle manufacturers preferential access to the US, the BBC reported.
The deal meant UK manufacturers could sell up to 100,000 vehicles to the US with a 10% tariff. However, UK steel and aluminium were still subject to a 25% tariff, which could double to 50% by the July 9 deadline.
In other news, the US Senate started debating Trump’s bill on tax breaks and cuts to healthcare, Al Jazeera reported.
Democrats and some Republicans criticised the 940-page proposal. Senators narrowly approved the motion to start the debate, with two Republicans siding with 47 Democrats in voting against it.
The Congressional Budget Office said the bill would increase the deficit by about US$3.3 trillion over a decade, while 11.8 million people would become uninsured by 2034 if it became law, Al Jazeera said.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the bill would not cut access to federal health insurance programmes, such as Medicaid. “This bill strengthens Medicaid, it will protect those benefits that hard-working Americans need, and that’s why the President wants this bill to pass.”
In the Middle East, Iranian deputy foreign minister Majid Takht-Ravanch said the US must rule out further strikes on Iran if it wanted to resume talks over the country’s nuclear programme.
Talks stopped last month after Israel struck nuclear sites and military infrastructure, while the US also hit three nuclear sites in Iran.
Takht-Ravanchi denied Iran was developing a nuclear bomb, but said his country would "insist" on being able to enrich uranium for “peaceful” purposes, the BBC reported.
To business, Nasa has inked a deal with streaming giant Netflix to broadcast rocket launches, spacewalks, and views of Earth from space, CNBC reported.
The space agency said it was part of its effort to reach a global audience, while content would remain free and ad-free on the Nasa app and website.
Nasa did not disclose financial details of the deal. Netflix has more than 700 million global users.
In Europe, Italy approved a decree to let almost 500,000 documented immigrants enter the country over the next three years, Bloomberg reported.
Despite the government’s opposition to migration, Italy needed workers because of an ageing population. The government said the decree aimed to coordinate entries with the needs of the job market, with a mix of seasonal and non-seasonal workers.
