U.S. President Donald Trump says he is ending all trade negotiations with Canada after an advertisement aired featuring former American President Ronald Reagan criticizing tariffs.
The move by Trump comes as the free trade agreement between Canada, the U.S. and Mexico was to be renegotiated.
The advertisement in question was produced by the Ontario government and features Reagan saying that tariffs only work for a short period of time.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford said earlier in October 14 that his government would spend $75 million on the advertisements and run them in Republican states across the U.S.
The Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation has issued a statement saying the Ontario-produced ad misrepresents a presidential radio address Reagan delivered in 1987, and that his remarks were edited without permission.
Trump took to social media to say he is ending all trade negotiations with Canada as a result of the advertisement.
“ALL TRADE NEGOTIATIONS WITH CANADA ARE HEREBY TERMINATED,” wrote Trump in all caps.
Trump has a track record of blowing up trade negotiations when he doesn’t get his way or is upset.
In recent weeks, Trump threatened to impose tariffs of up to 100% on all Chinese imports effective Nov. 1 if Beijing doesn’t send more rare earth minerals to the U.S.
This the second time this year that Trump said he was terminating trade talks with Canada.
In June, Trump terminated trade talks with Ottawa over a digital services tax that was to be applied on U.S. technology companies such as Meta Platforms (META) and Alphabet (GOOGL).
Ottawa rescinded that tax and trade talks with officials in Washington, D.C. resumed two days later.
