United States President Donald Trump has said the US and Canada will not restart trade talks on account of an Ontario political advertisement using former President Ronald Reagan saying tariffs spell disaster.
Trump said on Friday that even though Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney had apologised to him for the advertisement, the two countries would not be restarting trade talks.
“I like him a lot, but what they did was wrong,” he said. “He apologised for what they did with the commercial because it was a false commercial.”
Carney did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Trump last week called off negotiations over the advertisement aired by the Canadian province of Ontario, adding he was increasing tariffs on Canada by an additional 10 percent.
The advertisement by the Ontario government featured Republican icon Reagan saying that tariffs on foreign goods lead to trade wars and job losses.
Reagan was known for his support of free markets and free trade.
Trump has decried the advertisement, which ran on US platforms, as “fake”. As Al Jazeera reported earlier, the team of Ontario Premier Doug Ford, who spearheaded the advertisements, appears to have spliced together sections of Reagan’s speech to create the minute-long advertisement, but the statements are all lines that Reagan made in his speech.
Ford has since paused the advertisements so that trade talks between the two countries could move forward.
Carney has also said Canada is ready to sit down for negotiations.
Historically, the US has been Canada’s largest trading partner, with the latter sending around 75 percent of its exports to its southern neighbour. That trade has been upended with Trump’s tariffs, and Canada has been slapped with some of the highest tariffs.
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