Washington (AFP) – US President Donald Trump said Thursday he was ending trade talks with Canada over an anti-tariff advertising campaign, a sudden about-face soon after a cordial White House meeting with Prime Minister Mark Carney. On his Truth Social network, Trump vented fury at what he called a “fake” ad that he said misquoted former president Ronald Reagan discussing tariff policy. Trump said the campaign — produced by the Canadian province of Ontario to be aired on US television channels — was designed to “interfere with the decision of the US Supreme Court,” which is due to rule on his sweeping global tariffs. “Based on their egregious behavior, ALL TRADE NEGOTIATIONS WITH CANADA ARE HEREBY TERMINATED,” Trump posted.
There was no immediate comment from officials in Canada, where Carney said in a budget speech on Wednesday that Washington’s “fundamentally changed” trade policy required a revamp of Ottawa’s economic strategy. Trump said “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 foundation wrote on X that the Ontario government had used “selective audio and video” from a radio address on trade that Reagan had delivered in 1987. It said the ad “misrepresents” what the former Republican president said, adding that it was “reviewing its legal options.”
The ad used quotes from Reagan’s speech, in which he warned against some of the ramifications that high tariffs on foreign imports could have on the US economy. It cited Reagan as saying that “high tariffs inevitably lead to retaliation by foreign countries and the triggering of fierce trade wars,” a quote that matches a transcript of his speech on the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library’s website.
The latest twist in relations between the United States and Canada came just over two weeks after Carney visited Trump at the White House to seek a relaxation of stiff US tariffs. At that meeting, Trump described Carney as a “world-class leader” and said the Canadian would “walk away very happy” from their discussion. Trump’s global sectoral tariffs — particularly on steel, aluminum, and autos — have hit Canada hard, forcing job losses and squeezing businesses.
For now, the United States and Canada continue to adhere to an existing North American trade deal called the USMCA, which ensures that roughly 85 percent of cross-border trade in both directions remains tariff-free. In his speech on Wednesday, ahead of the unveiling of the 2025 federal budget next month, Carney said that the United States has raised “its tariffs to levels last seen during the Great Depression.” “The scale and speed of these developments are not a smooth transition, they’re a rupture. They mean our economic strategy needs to change dramatically,” Carney added, saying the process “will take some sacrifices and some time.”
Both Trump and the Canadian prime minister are due to attend gatherings in the coming days — the regional summit of Southeast Asian nations (ASEAN) in Malaysia and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Forum in South Korea. Earlier this week, Carney had said Ottawa was in “intensive negotiations” with Washington for a trade deal. Canada is a major supplier of steel and aluminum for US businesses, and Carney had expressed optimism about the prospects of a breakthrough in those sectors.
Carney has also said his government is focused on preserving the USMCA, which was signed during Trump’s first term and is scheduled for review in 2026. While most cross-border food trade has remained tariff-free, some US tariffs and Canadian countermeasures have forced some suppliers to raise prices. Data released Tuesday showed Canada’s annual inflation rate rising to 2.4 percent in September — slightly above analyst expectations, with rising grocery prices partly driving the inflation bump. Canadian grocery stores have historically relied heavily on US imports.
© 2024 AFP
