US terminates all trade negotiations with Canada over TV ad row

US President Donald Trump on Friday said that he was ending "all trade negotiations" with neighbour country Canada because of recent television ads protesting US tariffs, calling it "egregious behavior" aimed at influencing US court decisions on his tariff policy.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford said earlier this week that the ad with anti-tariff messaging showing Reagan had caught Trump's attention. The ad showed him criticizing tariffs on foreign goods while saying they caused job losses and trade wars.

"I heard that the president heard our ad. I'm sure he wasn’t too happy," Ford said on Tuesday.


"The Ronald Reagan Foundation has just announced that Canada has fraudulently used an advertisement, which is fake, featuring Ronald Reagan speaking negatively about tariffs," Trump wrote in a social media post. "The ad was for $75,000."

He alleged that the ad is aimed at interfering with the decision of the US Supreme Court.

"They only did this to interfere with the decision of the U.S. Supreme Court, and other courts," Trump said, reiterating that tariffs are very important to the national security and economy of the USA.

"Based on the egregious behaviour, all trade negotiations with Canada are hereby terminated," the US President said.

As a response to the issue, the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation & Institute said, "O Canada is running a $75M anti-tariff PROPAGANDA ad on TV, here in the United States of America—Directed at Republican Voters…"

“The Govt of Ontario, Canada, created an ad campaign using selective audio and video of RonaldReagan…," it added.



His announcement comes after Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said that he aims to double his country’s exports to countries outside the US because of the threat posed by Trump’s tariffs. He told reporters that Canada will not allow unfair U.S. access to its markets if talks on various trade deals with Washington fail.

Meanwhile, Carney is set to release his government budget on November 4. Speaking on 25% tariff imposed by the US, he said many of Canada's former strengths - based on close ties to America - have become vulnerabilities.

"The jobs of workers in our industries most affected by US tariffs - autos, steel, lumber - are under threat. Our businesses are holding back investments, restrained by the pall of uncertainty that is hanging over all of us," Carney said.

In his address to Canadians, the PM said that the decades-long process of an ever-closer economic relationship between the Canadian and US economies is now over.

"The US has fundamentally changed its approach to trade, raising its tariffs to levels last seen during the Great Depression," Carney said. "We have to take care of ourselves because we can't rely on one foreign partner."