‘Complete capitulation’: Experts try to decipher reported Canada-U.S. ‘digital trade alignment’

Canada’s leading digital policy experts are breaking out their tarot cards and reading the tea leaves after U.S. President Donald Trump’s top trade representative suggested the two countries had achieved “digital trade alignment” as part of bilateral negotiations. In the face of threatened 50 per cent tariffs from the White House, Greer said a tentative deal had been reached with his Canadian counterparts that included “comprehensive market access for all American goods, economic security commitments, digital trade alignment, and many important provisions.” In Ottawa, Prime Minister Mark Carney (Nepean, Ont.) did not reference a finalized agreement, but touted “significant progress” towards a resolution between the two countries. Regardless, Greer’s reference to digital trade caught the attention of policy experts and political observers north of the border. Throughout negotiations, Canada has already ceded regulatory territory in the technology sector by sacrificing the digital services tax and domestic content contribution requirements for large U.S. streaming platforms. According to Carleton University professor Dwayne Winseck, digital “alignment” between the two nations could “be code for complete capitulation” from Canada. In particular, Winseck pointed to policies introduced in the Online Streaming Act, the Online News Act, and domestic regulations governing cloud computing. “All of these things could be caught up here,” he told The Wire Report in an interview. “And this is much more than trade.” “This is about aligning Canada with an ideological view of the world that essentially makes powerful multinational actors free of any kind of public oversight and regulation.” U.S. business and political interests have long described Canada’s digital policies, many of which were introduced by Justin Trudeau’s government, as “irritants” during negotiations under North America’s free trade agreement. Winseck said Ottawa has signalled a willingness to loosen regulatory restrictions on streaming companies and social media platforms to achieve progress for other industries, like automotives and forestry, though Carney has seemingly always been philosophically opposed to several Trudeau-era measures. “I think might be very predisposed to accepting an American view of the world that's been around for a century, which is that the free flow of information and data requires that countries around the world impose no barriers to American communication and media interests in operating in them,” said Winseck. “ has been gunning for this for a century and this is just the latest iteration.” “Canada has never accepted that world view. In fact, it asked for and got things like the cultural exemption to develop telecommunications regulations that have a unique made-in-Canada stamp on them that don't follow in the American footsteps.” Michael Geist, Canada research chair in internet law and e-commerce, suggested the agreement would likely formalize Canadian concessions on streamers and the digital services tax, but could likely include the elimination of rules forcing social media companies, like Alphabet Inc.’s Google and Meta Platforms Inc., to pay for news content appearing on their websites. “Reversing the Online News Act and its mandated payment for news links is another likely target for digital alignment,” Geist wrote in a blog post published on Wednesday. “The end of the Online News Act would close the chapter on Canada’s previous digital policies.” However, Geist, also a University of Ottawa professor, added that a revised trading arrangement could upend Canada’s approach to data governance. The “ already contains data flow and localization provisions, so alignment here would likely mean tightening the existing rules and narrowing the exceptions,” he wrote. “Such commitment would have significant implications for data sovereignty initiatives and be hard to square with an ‘elbows up’ approach.” “Given the emphasis on digital alignment, Canada could seek assurances that Canadian firms and agencies will be held to the same security requirements as their U.S. counterparts, with no exclusions based on nationality. If alignment means Canada adopting U.S. digital trade norms, the corresponding Canadian position should be full access to the digital economy those norms are built around.” Elsewhere, media commentator Howard Law speculated on whether a bilateral alignment could touch Canada’s recently-proposed social media ban for young people, which has not yet passed through Parliament and may face legal challenges impeding its implementation. Meanwhile, trade lawyer Barry Appleton equated “digital trade alignment” with full submission on Canada’s part. He invoked a Trump executive order signed in 2025 regarding artificial intelligence (AI) that sought to ensure American AI “standards and governance models are adopted worldwide to strengthen relationships with… allies and secure our continued technological dominance.” “The vocabulary tells you which kind of instrument this is,” Appleton wrote on his Substack. “There is no mention of interoperability. None of mutual recognition. None of standards cooperation, technical dialogue, or a joint working group, which is the vocabulary of an agreement between two regulators who intend to keep regulating.” “Alignment here means Canadian rules moving toward American rules. It does not mean the two systems learning to talk to each other.” Blayne Haggart, a political science professor at Brock University, said it’s difficult to make a judgement without reading the final text, but he believes any alignment would involve “hitching our wagon on digital policy to a greater extent than we’re doing right now.” “And that’s a problem, if we’re interested in having a sovereign country,” Haggart told The Wire Report. “Is Canada changing its regulatory frameworks… to basically satisfy the United States with respect to tariffs? If we are, then that is de facto integration with the United States and it’s the exact opposite of what Mark Carney was elected to do.” For Carleton University’s Winseck, any “alignment” will only serve to lessen Canada’s cultural sovereignty. “Sovereignty is about the capacity of an independent country to make rules that govern the economy and society and powerful actors in ways that the people within that country see fit,” he said. “And, to my mind, digital alignment is just code for erasing the sovereign capacity to make those kinds of rules.” dlegree@thewirereport.ca

‘Complete capitulation’: Experts try to decipher reported Canada-U.S. ‘digital trade alignment’

Regulatory |
By Davis Legree
|August 19, 2026

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‘Complete capitulation’: Experts try to decipher reported Canada-U.S. ‘digital trade alignment’

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