Congress Is Right to Investigate Canada's Online Streaming Act

Rep. Lloyd Smucker (R-PA) and five other Republicans on the House Ways and Means Trade Subcommittee introduced legislation on March 19 directing the U.S. Trade Representative to launch a Section 301 investigation into Canada's Online Streaming Act. The bill marks a significant development: Congress is no longer just raising concerns about Canada's discriminatory digital trade practices; it is laying the legal groundwork for enforcement action.

The Online Streaming Act, passed by Canada's Parliament in 2023, requires foreign streaming services to contribute 5 percent of their Canadian revenues to government-administered content funds. The law's implementing body, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), has signaled that the obligation could grow, with potential direct spending mandates tied to what Ottawa deems "Canadian content." The law applies to U.S. platforms, while it excludes Canadian streaming services, like CBC Gem and Crave, based on their revenue or ties to a Canadian broadcaster.

This Canadian law is not a neutral consumer protection measure. It is a discriminatory levy on cross-border digital trade that singles out American companies for revenue extraction while exempting domestic competitors. By any objective assessment, it qualifies as a non-tariff attack: a policy framed as legitimate domestic regulation but engineered to target specific foreign firms, extract their resources, and tilt the competitive playing field.

The Smucker bill follows months of sustained bipartisan pressure. In November 2025, Reps. Smucker and Linda Sánchez led a letter to Canadian officials signed by 29 members of the Ways and Means Committee, both Republicans and Democrats, calling the Online Streaming Act a clear distortion of the digital marketplace that undermines the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement’s (USMCA's) principles of fair competition. That letter noted that U.S. on-demand video and music streaming generated over $84 billion for the American economy in 2023, making the sector a significant contributor to U.S. economic output and jobs. It urged Canada to rescind the law before the upcoming USMCA six-year review.

Canada's Online Streaming Act is far from the only policy of this kind. More than 100 discriminatory policies targeting U.S. technology companies are in force or under consideration around the world, from the EU's Digital Markets Act to India's data protection regime to Brazil's proposed competition regulations. What they share is a common design: criteria engineered to capture a handful of leading U.S. firms, protection of domestic competitors, and a disregard for how these policies undermine U.S. techno-economic competition with China.

A Section 301 investigation would formalize what policymakers already know: the Online Streaming Act meets the statutory threshold of an unreasonable or discriminatory trade practice that burdens U.S. commerce. A finding to that effect would give USTR the authority to impose retaliatory tariffs or other measures. The timing is notable. The Trump administration has signaled that Section 301 investigations will play a central role in its trade enforcement strategy going forward, and USTR has already launched several new probes, including one targeting forced labor across 60 countries.

Growing congressional attention to Canada's law is a promising sign that policymakers are beginning to treat these measures with the seriousness they deserve. NTAs should be elevated to a top-tier priority in U.S. trade negotiations, and the United States needs systematic tools to identify, track, and counter them. The Smucker bill is a step in that direction. It sends a clear signal to Canada and to every other trading partner considering similar measures: discriminatory digital trade barriers against American companies will face consequences.