Trump cuts off trade talks with Canada over antitariff ad

President Donald Trump on Thursday night said he would no longer negotiate trade with Canada, after its Ontario province aired an ad appearing to show Ronald Reagan criticizing tariffs. Canada was attempting to influence the Supreme Court as it weighed his tariff strategy, Trump said. The court is scheduled to hear the combined case over tariffs in the first week of November.

Ontario’s advertisement misrepresented Reagan’s position on tariffs, the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation said on Thursday. The province’s government didn’t seek permission to use or edit his remarks, the foundation said. It was exploring legal options, it said. It invited people to review the unedited remarks, which Regan recorded for radio in 1987.

How did the Canadian government react? Prime Minister Mark Carney on Friday said that Canada couldn’t control U.S. policy, but would resume talks whenever America was ready, according to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Ontario Premier Doug Ford earlier described his idea behind the ad and plans to spend $75 million to place it on American networks.

Carney on Wednesday said that Canada would double its exports to countries other than the United States over the next decade to lower its reliance on a single trading partner. He visited the White House two weeks before to talk over sticking points on trade—including industries in which the United States and Canada compete—but didn’t firm up an agreement with Trump.

Dig deeper: Read my report on a Canadian city’s fight over a court order giving land rights to native tribes.