U.S. President Donald Trump announced he is terminating all trade negotiations with Canada, the U.S.’s largest seafood trading partner, in response to a television advertisement featuring a quote from former President Ronald Reagan.
Trump, in a post on his social media platform Truth Social, said he was terminating the trade negotiations and that the Ronald Reagan Foundation “announced that Canada fraudulently used an advertisement, which is FAKE, featuring Ronald Reagan speaking negatively about tariffs.” The foundation had posted an update online saying it was “reviewing its legal options” on the advertisement, which directly quotes a real address by Reagan publicly available online.
In response to the ad and the post by the foundation, Trump said he was terminating all trade negotiations with Canada, claiming the country was trying to illegally interfere with a U.S. Supreme Court case on the legitimacy of Trump’s tariff actions.
“CANADA CHEATED AND GOT CAUGHT!!! They fraudulently took a big buy ad saying that Ronald Reagan did not like Tariffs, when actually he LOVED TARIFFS FOR OUR COUNTRY, AND ITS NATIONAL SECURITY,” Trump wrote on 24 October.
The advertisement in question, run as a campaign by the provincial government of Ontario and broadcast on U.S. television networks, airs clips of an address by Reagan addressing his decision to place higher tariffs on Japanese products.
"When someone says, 'Let's impose tariffs on foreign imports,' it looks like they're doing the patriotic thing by protecting American products and jobs. And sometimes, for a short while, it works, but only for a short time," Reagan said in the 1987 address. "Over the long run, such trade barriers hurt every American, worker, and consumer.”
In the five-minute address, Reagan states his opposition to tariffs and trade barriers and criticizes his political opponents for proposing legislation that could have placed more trade barriers on other countries.
“High tariffs inevitably lead to retaliation by foreign countries and the triggering of fierce trade wars. The result is more and more tariffs, higher and higher trade barriers, and less and less competition,” Reagan said. “Soon, because of the prices made artificially high by tariffs, subsidized inefficiency, and poor management, people stop buying. Then, the worst happens: Markets shrink and collapse, businesses and industries shut down, and millions of people lose their jobs.”
Politico reported Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said on 24 October that progress was still being made on trade talks between the two countries, despite Trump’s posts on social media.
“My colleagues have been working with their American colleagues on detailed, constructive negotiations,” he said. “A lot of progress has been made, and we stand ready to pick up on that progress and build on that progress when the Americans are ready to have those discussions because it will be for the benefit of workers in the United States, workers in Canada, and families in both of our countries.”
Trump’s announcement comes as Canada and Mexico have begun to deepen their trade ties in response to the ongoing tariffs Trump launched against the two countries, which hit them both with a 35 percent tariff on all goods, aside from those that comply with the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA).
