Trump Says He’s Cutting Off Trade Negotiations With Canada

The president said he was motivated by an ad, paid for by the province of Ontario, that featured Ronald Reagan criticizing tariffs in a 1987 radio address.

President Trump said late Thursday that he was terminating negotiations with Canada over the high tariffs that he imposed on its steel, auto parts and other major exports, adding new uncertainty to the relationship with America’s second-biggest trading partner.

On Truth Social, the president said he was ending all trade negotiations with Canada because of a video ad, paid for by the province of Ontario, that featured former President Ronald Reagan speaking negatively about tariffs.

“TARIFFS ARE VERY IMPORTANT TO THE NATIONAL SECURITY, AND ECONOMY, OF THE U.S.A.,” Mr. Trump wrote. “Based on their egregious behavior, ALL TRADE NEGOTIATIONS WITH CANADA ARE HEREBY TERMINATED.”

Mr. Trump claimed that the ad was fake and said that it had been placed “to interfere with the decision of the U.S. Supreme Court,” which is currently considering a legal challenge to many of Mr. Trump’s tariffs.

Prime Minister Mark Carney of Canada did not argue with Mr. Trump or refer to his decision to suspend negotiations. “We stand ready to pick up on those discussions when the Americans are ready,” he told reporters as he left for a summit in Malaysia that Mr. Trump is also expected to attend.

The quotes in the ad are drawn from a radio address that Mr. Reagan gave in April 1987, in which he urged Congress not to pursue protectionist policies against Japan and gave a blistering critique of the economic effects of tariffs. Although quotes are taken from different parts of Mr. Reagan’s speech and presented in a different order, there is no indication that they have been altered.

It was unclear if the president had spoken to Mr. Carney or anyone in the Canadian government before announcing that he was canceling trade talks. But Mr. Trump’s Thursday missive was not the first indication that he had noticed the ad.

“I see foreign countries now, that we are doing really well with, taking ads, ‘Don’t go with tariffs,’” Mr. Trump told reporters in the White House on Tuesday. “They’re taking ads. I saw an ad last night from Canada.”

“If I was Canada I’d take that same ad also,” he added.

On Thursday, the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute said in a statement posted on social media that the Ontario ad had used “selective” audio and video from Mr. Reagan’s address. “The ad misrepresents the Presidential Radio Address,” the statement said. The institute did not respond to a question about how the ad had misrepresented the address.

It was that statement that apparently prompted Mr. Trump to post on Truth Social that he was ending the talks with Canada.

“The Ronald Reagan Foundation has just announced that Canada has fraudulently used an advertisement, which is FAKE, featuring Ronald Reagan speaking negatively about Tariffs,” Mr. Trump wrote.

Mr. Trump has taken an aggressive stance toward Canada, which is a source of many U.S. imports and a destination for many American exports. He has imposed a 35 percent tariff on some of its most critical exports and has repeatedly suggested that Canada should be the 51st U.S. state.

Canadian sentiment toward the United States has soured drastically over the past several months because of the Trump administration’s moves. This latest development comes as the Toronto Blue Jays prepare to face off at home against the Los Angeles Dodgers in the first game of the World Series on Friday, a major moment of pride for Canadians rallying around their flag.

It is unclear where Mr. Trump’s latest statement leaves the two countries’ relationship. The United States, Canada and Mexico have been preparing for a review of their shared free trade agreement, which is scheduled to be completed by next summer.

Kevin Hassett, the director of the White House National Economic Council, declined on Friday to discuss the ad that had prompted Mr. Trump to cut off trade talks with Canada. But he told reporters that the “frustration has built up over time,” and later, he faulted Canada for a “lack of flexibility” in negotiations.

In a statement, Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the minority leader, said Americans could not afford the president’s “price-spiking tariff temper tantrums.” He said Senate Democrats would force votes next week to reverse the tariffs on Canada and other countries. “The madness must stop,” he said.

Mr. Carney visited Mr. Trump at the White House earlier this month for the second time, but the cordial meeting yielded no breakthrough in talks. Mr. Carney, who has said that Canada’s old relationship with the United States is over, said in a major economic policy address this week that he wanted to double Canada’s exports to destinations other than the United States over the next decade.

The ad that Mr. Trump mentioned in his post was taken out by the government of Ontario, Canada’s most populous province and a nexus of economic cooperation with the United States.

The government of Ontario said it had spent 75 million Canadian dollars, about $53.5 million, to broadcast the ad. It began airing in the United States last week during a Blue Jays game against the Seattle Mariners, and it was scheduled to continue to air over the following two weeks.

“When someone says, ‘Let’s impose tariffs on foreign imports,’ it looks like they’re doing the patriotic thing by protecting American products,” Mr. Reagan is heard to say in the ad, over various images of economic activity. But, he warns, tariffs cause damage. “Markets shrink and collapse,” Mr. Reagan says, “industries shut down and millions of people lose their jobs.”

Mr. Reagan gave the 1987 radio address from Camp David before a visit by the Japanese prime minister to Washington. At the time, anger had been growing in the United States over Japan’s ballooning trade surplus, but politicians like Mr. Reagan continued to believe in the benefits of free trade.

Mr. Reagan had just placed some tariffs on Japanese products in response to Japan’s failure to abide by a trade agreement over semiconductors. But he urged Congress not to restrict his options by issuing more protectionist measures. And he decried the economic effects of tariffs, saying that over time, they would make protected industries less competitive and set off trade wars that would destroy American jobs.

Doug Ford, the premier of Ontario, introduced the ad on Oct. 16, writing in a Facebook post on his official page that “we’ll never stop making the case against American tariffs on Canada.”

In a speech two days earlier, talking about what had motivated him to take out the ad, Mr. Ford said he had listened to the Reagan speech and thought, “Let’s take Ronald Reagan’s words and let’s blast it to the American people.”

Tony Romm contributed reporting from Washington, D.C.

Related Content