Last Updated on 2026-08-25 07:16 EDT

Ottawa’s negotiators rejected an 11th-hour demand from the Trump administration to ditch requirements that U.S. streaming platforms, including Netflix and Amazon Prime Video, promote Canadian film, TV and music to their users in Canada.

On Friday evening, the U.S. negotiating team introduced an unexpected demand that Canada provide exemptions to its laws requiring U.S. streamers to boost the discoverability of Canadian content, including French-language content, in this country, reports Marie Woolf at The Globe and Mail.

Canadian negotiators rejected the demand, made hours before the talks broke down, regarding it as a threat to this country’s culture and sovereignty. It was one of a number of reasons Ottawa’s team walked away from the negotiating table.

A source told The Globe and Mail that during the last hour Friday night talks, the U.S negotiators came with “a new draft” of a prospective trade deal between the two countries, which included demands for concessions on “discoverability” of Canadian content.

Also:

CBC: How Canadian content on streaming platforms became a trade issue with the U.S.