Washington, United States – US President Donald Trump announced on Friday the termination of all ongoing trade negotiations with Canada, in protest against a Canadian television ad criticizing new US tariffs.
In a post on his Truth Social platform, Trump justified his decision, claiming that the Canadian commercial included “fake” clips of former US President Ronald Reagan speaking negatively about the tariffs.
Trump wrote that this “disgraceful behavior” aims to “influence US court decisions” regarding the tariffs.
This decision comes a week after Ontario Premier Doug Ford announced that the province would allocate $75 million to purchase advertising time in the United States for the ad.
The ad includes a 1987 radio address by Reagan, in which he defended imposing 100% tariffs on Japan in the context of a trade dispute, but followed it with a warning against continuing such conflicts. “In the long run,” Reagan says in the ad, “such trade barriers hurt every American—workers and consumers alike.”
The termination of the trade negotiations represents a sudden escalation by Trump, in response to what he considered unacceptable Canadian interference in US domestic trade and political affairs.
