Carney ready to resume trade talks stalled by Reagan ad

Prime Minister Mark Carney says Canada is ready to resume trade talks with the United States, which President Donald Trump halted over an anti-tariff ad run by the Ontario provincial government.

Trump broke off talks Thursday over a video featuring former President Ronald Reagan, a Republican icon, saying tariffs were leading to trade wars and economic disaster.

In a late-night post on social media, Trump said the ad was a fraud.

Since becoming prime minister, Carney has tried to make two White House visits to reach a deal to reduce Trump’s import tariffs on steel, aluminum and autos that have hurt Canada’s economy.

“My colleagues are working on detailed constructive discussions with their American counterparts and discussions on specific sectors,” Carney said Friday before leaving Ottawa for his first official visit to Asia, where he aims to expand trade ties away from the United States.

Carney had eliminated most of the retaliatory tariffs imposed by his predecessor on Canada’s U.S. imports, but White House adviser Kevin Hassett said Trump was disappointed with Canada and trade talks were not going well.

“I think the frustration has grown over time,” Hassett, director of the National Economic Council, told reporters at the White House. “It has been very difficult to negotiate with the Canadians.”

When asked for details, Hassett cited a “lack of flexibility.”

In a separate post Friday, Trump accused Canada of trying to influence the U.S. Supreme Court, which is preparing to hear arguments next month on the legality of Trump’s sweeping global tariffs.

The Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation said the ad used “selective audio and video.” He said legal options were being examined.

The commercial’s voiceover features Reagan, a hero of many US Republicans, criticizing tariffs on foreign goods and saying they cause job losses and trade wars. The video uses five complete sentences from the five-minute weekly address, combined in an unusual way.

“The ad misrepresents the Presidential Radio Address (which Reagan gave in 1987) and the Government of Ontario did not seek and did not receive permission to use and edit these remarks,” the foundation said in its statement.

The ad does not mention that Reagan used this address to explain that the tariffs imposed on Japan by his administration should be viewed as an unfortunately inevitable exception to his fundamental belief that Japan was the key to prosperity.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford said this week that the ad, which the provincial government has been running for more than a week, caught Trump’s attention. Ford has frequently called on Carney to take a more aggressive approach against Trump.

“When someone says, ‘Let’s put tariffs on foreign imports,’ it looks like they’re being patriotic by protecting American products and jobs,” Reagan says on the air.

“And sometimes it works for a short time, but only for a short time.”

It also says, “…in the long run, such trade barriers harm every American worker and consumer” and that the result of trade wars is “Markets shrink and collapse; businesses and industries close and millions of people lose their jobs.”

Earlier Thursday, Canada sharply reduced duty-free import quotas for General Motors and Stellantis, citing their decisions to reduce production in the country.

Trump’s trade war has raised U.S. tariffs to their highest level since the 1930s and regularly threatens more tariffs, sparking concerns among businesses and economists.

Next year, the United States, Canada and Mexico are expected to review the 2020 continental free trade agreement.

Carney said he was aware that US trade policy had fundamentally changed.

“There’s been a lot of progress, and we’re ready to seize that progress and build on that progress when Americans are ready to have those discussions, because it will benefit workers in the United States, workers in Canada, and families in both countries.”

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