Trump breaks off trade talks with Canada

It is unclear whether the president spoke with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney or someone in the Canadian government before announcing the cancellation of the trade talks. Canada "cannot control US trade policy," the Canadian premier said after Trump's announcement. "We remain ready to resume talks when the US is ready," Carney added, according to Bloomberg news agency reports. Canada - Carney emphasised - can forge "new partnerships, including in Asia.

Officials from the two countries have been engaged in lengthy talks for months, most recently centred on steel and aluminium tariffs, with the Carney administration insisting that lowering metal tariffs would help the advanced US manufacturing sector.

Trump and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney are likely to meet next week, as both will attend the ASEAN and APEC summits in Malaysia and South Korea respectively.

Since returning to office, the US president has adopted an unconventional approach to trade, often announcing the imposition or removal of tariffs and trade agreements with allies and adversaries on his Truth Social platform. His decisions often depend on the political positions or economic policies of countries.

In fact, this is not the first time this year that Trump has declared that he wants to break off trade negotiations with Canada. Earlier this summer, the US president declared that he would break off all trade negotiations with Canada because of its tax on digital services and that he would announce new tariffs for the country. On that occasion, this strategy proved effective for the US. Canada declared that it would introduce legislation to eliminate the tax and suspend collection.

Premier Carney met with President Trump at the White House earlier this month for the second time, but the cordial meeting did not produce any progress in the talks. Carney, who has claimed that the old relationship between Canada and the United States is over, stated in a major economic policy speech this week that he wants to double Canadian exports to destinations other than the United States over the next decade.

The advertisement with Reagan's words mentioned by Trump in his post was released by the government of Ontario, Canada's most populous province and a key hub of economic cooperation with the United States.