WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump said he was ending “all trade negotiations” with Canada because of recent television ads protesting US tariffs, which he called “egregious behavior” aimed at influencing US court decisions.
Trump posted late Thursday on social media, “The Ronald Reagan Foundation has just announced that Canada has fraudulently used an advertisement, which is FAKE, featuring Ronald Reagan speaking negatively about Tariffs.”
“The ad was for $75,000. They only did this to interfere with the decision of the U.S. Supreme Court, and other courts,” the president 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.”
According to CNN, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has said he aims to double his country’s exports to nations outside the US because of the threat posed by Trump’s tariffs. Carney’s office didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on President Trump’s decision.
Reagan Foundation and Ontario Government at the Center of Dispute
Earlier Thursday, the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation & Institute posted on X that the ad created by the government of Ontario “misrepresents the ‘Presidential Radio Address to the Nation on Free and Fair Trade’ dated April 25, 1987.” It added that Ontario did not receive foundation permission “to use and edit the remarks.”
The foundation said it is “reviewing legal options in this matter” and invited the public to watch the unedited video of Reagan’s address.
Carney met with Trump earlier this month to try to ease trade tensions as the two countries and Mexico prepare for a review of the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement, a trade deal Trump negotiated in his first term but has since soured on.
More than three-quarters of Canadian exports go to the US, and nearly $3.6 billion Canadian ($2.7 billion USD) worth of goods and services cross the border daily.
In his own post on X last week, Doug Ford, the premier of Ontario, posted a link to the ad and the message: “It’s official: Ontario’s new advertising campaign in the U.S. has launched.”
He continued, “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.”
Trump said earlier this week that he had seen the ad on television and said that it showed that his tariffs were having an impact.
“I saw an ad last night from Canada. If I was Canada, I’d take that same ad also,” he said then.
The president has moved to impose steep US tariffs on many goods from Canada. In April, Canada’s government imposed retaliatory levies on certain US goods – but it carved out exemptions for some automakers to bring specific numbers of vehicles into the country, known as remission quotas.
Trump’s tariffs have especially hurt Canada’s auto sector, much of which is based in Ontario. This month, the giant automaker Stellantis said it would move a production line from Ontario to Illinois.
