U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin sent a letter to his peers in the U.K., France, Italy and Spain, suspending the talks and warning of retaliatory measures. The four nations are preparing a joint response. (Financial Times)

Talking point: The countries agree on the need to set a global minimum corporate tax rate to stop firms asking for lower rates by promising to move their headquarters. However, they’ve reached an impasse over the right to tax profits made on sales in their jurisdictions, which would apply to the U.S. tech giants, but also to European luxury-goods companies. The U.K. said Wednesday it was forging ahead with its own digital tax, which doesn’t require tech firms to pay anything until 2021. During the 2019 federal election campaign, the Liberals promised to introduce a tax similar to the ones the European nations are proposing, to be replaced by an eventual global deal. On Tuesday, Canadian Heritage Minister Steven Guilbeault said he’d require U.S. tech firms including Facebook and Alphabet to pay news organizations for using their content. That legislation is scheduled for autumn.