Trump cancels trade talks with Canada over Reagan video

2025-10-24 07:47:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

US President Donald Trump has declared that he will immediately end all trade negotiations with Canada. In a post on Truth Social, Trump wrote that the country had aired an ad in which former US President Ronald Reagan spoke negatively about tariffs.

"Based on their outrageous behavior, all trade negotiations with Canada end with this right," Trump wrote late Thursday.

The US president has imposed a 35% tariff on Canadian imports, although he has allowed exemptions for goods that fall under the USMCA, a free trade agreement with Mexico and Canada that Trump negotiated during his first term.

Trump said the video, sponsored by the Ontario government, was designed to “interfere” with the U.S. Supreme Court, referring to an upcoming November ruling on whether Washington’s sweeping global tariffs are legal. The court’s decision represents the biggest test of Trump’s presidential authority and his signature economic policy, potentially forcing the U.S. to refund billions collected in tariffs.

In the one-minute ad released last week, Reagan's voice is heard narrating over images that include the New York Stock Exchange and cranes decorated with American and Canadian flags. The video features excerpts from a 1987 national radio address by Reagan, which focused on foreign trade.

“When someone says, ‘Let’s put tariffs on foreign imports,’ it sounds like they’re doing the patriotic thing by protecting American products and jobs. And sometimes, for a short time, it works, but only for a short time. But in the long run, such trade barriers hurt every American, worker, and consumer. High tariffs inevitably lead to retaliation from foreign countries and to the triggering of fierce trade wars... Markets shrink and collapse, businesses and industries close, and millions of people lose their jobs,” Reagan says.

In a post on X, the Ronald Reagan Foundation said the Ontario government had used "selective audio and video" of the former US president's remarks on tariffs.

"The Ontario government did not seek or receive permission to use and modify the remarks," the statement said.

The foundation said the ad "misrepresents" the former president's speech, without specifying why. The foundation further said it is "reviewing its legal options."

In a post accompanying the video ad, Ontario Premier Doug Ford wrote that “we will never stop arguing against U.S. tariffs on Canada.” Ford, who leads Canada’s most populous province and its largest economy, has been a vocal critic of U.S. tariffs. Ontario has been among the Canadian provinces hardest hit by U.S. tariffs, particularly in the auto and steel industries.

Ford countered Trump's earlier threat of tariffs against Canada by saying he was willing to cut off electricity supplies to the US.

Mark Carney and Doug Ford have not yet commented on Trump's announcement.

Trump has also imposed sector-specific tariffs on Canadian goods, including 50% on metals and 25% on automobiles.

The Chinese embassy in Washington also used a similar clip of Reagan in a post on X to cast doubt on Trump's global tariffs earlier this year./ CNA, translated by BBC