[CTC] Trump Cuts Off Trade Talks With Canada

[Arthur Stamoulis]

*When the debate is limited to Reagan vs Trump, it's time to make some
noise.  If you haven't yet, please sign and encourage others to sign public
comments on the USMCA review.
<https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/stop-trumps-rigged-trade-deal-from-further-hurting-working-people/>*


https://www.nytimes.com/live/2025/10/24/us/trump-canada-news
Trump Cuts Off Trade Talks With Canada

*President Trump expressed anger over an ad that featured President Ronald
Reagan criticizing the effects of tariffs in 1987. The move added
uncertainty to U.S.-Canadian relations.*

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
<https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1334957144375812> 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.

But the quotes are drawn from a radio address
<https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/radio-address-the-nation-free-and-fair-trade-6>
 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, there is no indication that they
have been altered.

It was unclear if the president had spoken to Prime Minister Mark Carney of
Canada or anyone in the Canadian government before announcing that he was
canceling trade talks. Mr. Carney’s office and the White House did not
immediately respond to requests for comment. 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, though, the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and
Institute said in a statement posted on social media
<https://x.com/RonaldReagan/status/1981524620265046408>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, without
clarifying how.

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.

Mr. Carney visited Mr. Trump at the White House earlier this month
<https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/07/us/politics/carney-trump-canada-trade-relationship.html>
 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.”
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