Late on Thursday, US President Donald Trump said that he was terminating “all trade negotiations” with Canada due to a television commercial criticising US tariffs that he claimed misrepresented the facts and referred to as “egregious behaviour” intended to sway US court rulings.
Following Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney’s declaration that he wants to double his country’s exports to nations outside of the United States due to the threat posed by Trump’s tariffs, the US president posted on Truth Social. Trade tensions between the two neighbouring countries have been rising for months, and the Trump’s call for a sudden end to negotiations may exacerbate them.
“The Ronald Reagan Foundation has just announced that Canada has fraudulently used an advertisement, which is FAKE, featuring Ronald Reagan speaking negatively about Tariffs, Trump wrote.
“The ad was for $75,000. They only did this to interfere with the decision of the U.S. Supreme Court, and other courts,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “TARIFFS ARE VERY IMPORTANT TO THE NATIONAL SECURITY, AND ECONOMY, OF THE U.S.A. Based on their egregious behavior, ALL TRADE NEGOTIATIONS WITH CANADA ARE HEREBY TERMINATED.”
This is the second time Trump announced that he was ending trade negotiations with Canada. In reaction to Ottawa’s plan to impose a digital services tax on American tech companies, he announced on June 27 that the US was “terminating ALL discussions on Trade with Canada.” Two days later, Canada revoked that tariff.
Meanwhile, a request for comment was not immediately answered by Carney’s office. Trump is scheduled to depart Friday evening for a conference in Asia, while Carney is scheduled to depart Friday morning.
An advertisement produced by the Ontario government “misrepresents the ‘Presidential Radio Address to the Nation on Free and Fair Trade’ dated April 25, 1987,” according to a post on X earlier on Thursday night by the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute. The foundation did not grant Ontario permission “to use and edit the remarks,” it further stated.
The foundation encouraged the public to examine the uncut footage of Reagan’s speech and stated that it is “reviewing legal options in this matter.”
As the two nations and Mexico get ready to review the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement, a trade agreement that Trump negotiated during his first term but has since soured on, Carney met with Trump earlier this month to reduce trade tensions.
Nearly $3.6 billion Canadian (US$2.7 billion) worth of products and services cross the border every day, with the US receiving more than 75 percent of Canada’s exports.
Earlier this week, Trump claimed to have seen the television advertisement and said it demonstrated the effect of his tariffs.
“I saw an ad last night from Canada. If I was Canada, I’d take that same ad also,” he said then.
The Ontario premier, Doug Ford, shared a link to the advertisement on X saying, “It’s official: Ontario’s new advertising campaign in the U.S. has launched.”
“Using every tool we have, we’ll never stop making the case against American tariffs on Canada. The way to prosperity is by working together,” he added.
A request for comment on Thursday night was not immediately answered by Ford’s representative. However, he previously attracted Trump’s attention by imposing an electricity surcharge on US states. In response, Trump doubled tariffs on aluminium and steel.
The president has taken action to impose high tariffs on a variety of Canadian imports. Retaliatory tariffs on select US goods were levied by the Canadian government in April; however, certain automakers were granted exemptions to import a set number of vehicles, known as remission quotas.
Canada’s auto industry, which is mostly concentrated in Ontario, has been particularly harmed by Trump’s tariffs. Stellantis said this month that it would relocate a production plant from Ontario to Illinois.