US President Donald Trump said on Thursday, October 24 he was terminating trade talks with Canada, threatening once again to undermine the crucial economic relationship between the United States and its second-biggest trading partner.
Trump stated he canceled the talks in response to an advertisement released last week by the government of Canada’s Ontario province. The ad featured audio from a 1987 speech by former U.S. President Ronald Reagan criticizing tariffs on foreign goods, where Reagan lambasted tariffs as hurting “every American worker and consumer” and “triggering fierce trade wars.”
After the ad aired, the Ronald Reagan Foundation claimed it “misrepresents” the speech and that the Ontario government had not asked permission to use the clip. While the ad edited the speech and lacked context, the theme of Reagan’s full five-minute speech, which the Reagan Library has published on YouTube, is full-throated support for free and fair trade.
Reagan delivered the original speech from Camp David during a period when he had just placed higher tariffs on various Japanese products, though he was clear at the time that he was "loath" to take that action and believed high tariffs had exacerbated the Great Depression.
Trump took to social media on Thursday night to blast the ad on Truth Social. He wrote that the Ronald Reagan Foundation had announced Canada “fraudulently used an advertisement, which is FAKE, featuring Ronald Reagan speaking negatively about Tariffs.” He claimed the ad aimed to “interfere with the decision of the U.S. Supreme Court, and other courts,” and defended tariffs as critical to the U.S. economy and national security. Trump concluded his post by writing: “Based on their egregious behavior, ALL TRADE NEGOTIATIONS WITH CANADA ARE HEREBY TERMINATED.”
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