Trump Suspends All Trade Talks With Canada

Darwin, 24 October-

U.S. President Donald Trump has abruptly announced the suspension of all trade discussions with Canada, accusing the country of producing a “fraudulent advertisement” involving former President Ronald Reagan.

According to a report by Al Jazeera, Trump made the announcement late Thursday night on his social media platform, Truth Social.

In his post, Trump wrote, “The Ronald Reagan Foundation has declared that Canada created a deceptive advertisement showing the late President Reagan making negative remarks about tariffs. The ad is completely fake.”

He added, “A total of $75,000 was spent to produce this fraudulent ad, with the sole purpose of influencing the decisions of the U.S. Supreme Court and other courts. Because of this disgraceful behavior, I am hereby terminating all trade discussions with Canada effective immediately.”

Earlier on Thursday, the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute issued a public statement, saying that a television advertisement produced by the Ontario provincial government “distorted Reagan’s April 25, 1987 radio address on ‘Free and Fair Trade.’”

The Foundation said Ontario did not seek permission to use or edit Reagan’s remarks and that legal action is being considered. It also urged the public to view the original, unedited version of Reagan’s speech.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford admitted earlier this week that the controversial ad had “sparked a stir in the United States and caught President Trump’s attention.”

“I’ve heard the President has seen it, and I’m sure he wasn’t pleased,” Ford said. In a post sharing the ad link, he added, “We’ll use every tool at our disposal to voice our opposition to America’s tariff policies. Prosperity can only come through cooperation.”

Before Trump’s announcement, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney had stated that his government was working to double exports to non-U.S. markets in response to Washington’s tariff threats.

He also warned that Canada would not accept “unfair U.S. access” if trade negotiations with Washington collapsed.

Over the past few weeks, the U.S. and Canada had been engaged in talks to establish a new trade deal. Tensions escalated after the Trump administration imposed additional tariffs on Canadian steel, aluminum, and automobile imports, prompting retaliatory tariffs from Ottawa.

Currently, more than three-quarters of Canada’s exports go to the United States, with approximately 3.6 billion Canadian dollars (about 2.7 billion U.S. dollars) in goods and services crossing the border daily.

As of Friday afternoon, the Canadian Prime Minister’s Office had not issued any official response to Trump’s sudden move.