A new Republican-sponsored bill in the U.S. Congress takes aim at Canada's attempts to force foreign streaming companies such as Netflix and Disney+ to pay into Canadian funds for domestic content production.

The proposed legislation could pave the way for the United States to impose new tariffs on Canadian products.

Called the Protecting American Streaming and Innovation Act, the bill was introduced on Thursday in the House of Representatives by Pennsylvania Republican Lloyd Smucker. It's designed "to counter Canada's digital trade barriers targeting American streaming companies and content producers," he said in a news release.

"Canada’s unfair policies stack the deck against U.S. companies, creators, and workers," Smucker said. CBC News has requested an interview with the congressman.

The bill is aimed at Canada's Online Streaming Act, which has been a trade irritant for the U.S. since it became law in 2023.

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[–] Thedogdrinkscoffee@lemmy.ca 38 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (1 children)

America wants to do business in Canada but not pay taxes and abide by our laws? Fine. Time for a great firewall and ban their services.

Let's speed up our de-integration. Time to cut out the tumour.

[–] bowreality@lemmy.ca 11 points 6 days ago

I cancelled it all. I can do without just fine.

[–] chuck@lemmy.ca 19 points 6 days ago (1 children)

I mean why does canada remain in lock step with the us with respect to copyright. I see no reason not to begin the reform with this streamed media and make it only 7 years after the first release or broadcast before it enters Canadian public domain

[–] corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca 2 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Because that's part of every trade agreement.

[–] Thedogdrinkscoffee@lemmy.ca 2 points 5 days ago

What agreement? Trump breaks every deal, repeatedly.

[–] DemandOk@lemmy.ca 9 points 6 days ago

Already cancelled and deleted my accounts. America who? worlds moved on.

[–] panda_abyss@lemmy.ca 8 points 6 days ago

You do business here you follow the law here.

Otherwise fuck off.

[–] Reannlegge@lemmy.ca 5 points 6 days ago

If I had money I would find ways to cut even more off from US services. I self host most of my things now, I still have my domain hosted but it is with a Canadian provider and a .ca TLD and I made sure they where not using AWS. I sail the high seas for all my media excluding CBC stuff, sonarr and radarr are amazing. I self host my own cloud storage, I want to have it backed up off site but that just means I either need to pay someone for cloud space or have a pi and a hdd running at someone else’s place. If I so wanted I could self host an a non-MS Office suite, maybe my next project? I tried using the self hosted search engine but that will take some work to get where it is useable on my devices. Sadly I was an Apple fan girl so I have Apple things but when they need replacing I will not be going with Apple. I think Canada should do what parts if not all of the EU are doing and ditch US tech, begone with Microslop Windows and Office 365.

[–] ILikeBoobies@lemmy.ca 3 points 6 days ago

Rather content laws apply to them than a tax but any American reaction only benefits us.