SAUNDERS: Trump calls off trade talks with Canada. Why?

WASHINGTON

President Donald Trump and Canada are at war again — or should I say, Trump is in a tariff war with Canada?

Indeed, on Friday he announced he was cutting off trade negotiations with America’s neighbor to the north.

The cause? It feels more like a soap opera than high-stakes international trade.

This tiff began with an ad released by Ontario Premier Doug Ford — it features former President Ronald Reagan’s homespun anti-tariff remarks from a 1987 radio address, delivered after he reluctantly imposed tariffs on certain Japanese exports to offset U.S. losses in the semiconductor industry.

The Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation & Institute released a statement that countered that the ad “misrepresents” Reagan’s remarks. Trump charged that ad was fraudulent — which is kind of rich when you consider how many times Trump has cribbed and twisted other people’s rhetoric.

Really, what other national leader would blow a trade deal over a perceived personal snub? Interests larger than the president’s ego, after all, hang in the balance.

For me what’s truly wrong here is Trump’s hostility toward Canada, a valued trading partner and long-term ally with whom America has gone to war.

During the 2024 campaign, Trump nonetheless mocked then Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and O Canada by calling Trudeau the governor of America’s 51st state. Trump and Trudeau have had their differences; in the face of persistent trash talk, Canadians naturally took umbrage.

Many hoped that U.S.-Canada relations would improve when Liberal Party leader Mark Carney became prime minister. But a rapprochement has not happened.

Jamie Tronnes, executive director of the Center for North American Prosperity and Security, told me, it is “unfortunate” that the government of Ontario aired an ad that could be seen as political interference. “If America were to do something similar in Canada, Canadians would be very frustrated.”

Major job losses since the tariffs have put a squeeze on manufacturing, the housing sector and other necessary projects and drive up prices. “So Americans are paying more for those,” Tronnes added, “while we sort out a spat over a commercial.”

Late Friday, Ford announced that he would pause the ad, so that trade talks could resume, The Associated Press reported — albeit not until after the ads run over the weekend during the World Series.

Of course, Tronnes sees the biggest problem as uncertainty.

The president has threatened huge tariffs, stalled tariffs and repeatedly changed his mind. CEOs aren’t sure where to expand or what’s next with their supply chains.

Some Canadians have decided to snub Americans back. As the Review-Journal reported in August, Canadian airline traffic at Harry Reid International Airport was down 18.5 percent.

The White House is not concerned.

“Nevada will benefit more than any other state from the President’s No Tax on Tips Policy, and Nevadans will see their wages increase up to $6,700 over the next four years with an average tax cut of $4,220 this year,” deputy press secretary Kush Desai responded in a text. “The vast majority of Las Vegas tourists are Americans, and the Trump administration is focused on unleashing the historic job, wage, and economic growth” experienced during Trump’s first term.

Fair enough. Some of us chickens still wonder why Trump chose to make an enemy out of a neighbor he claims to value.

This is a dangerous world, and America needs all the friends it can get. Canada used to be one of them.

Contact Review-Journal Washington columnist Debra J. Saunders at dsaunders@reviewjournal.com. Follow @debrajsaunders on X.