Unlike Reagan, Trump Isn't Serious About a New Trade Deal with Canada

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Last night, President Trump abruptly suspended trade talks with Canada - again.

This time it was over an ad run by the Government of Ontario which used a voiceover from the late President Reagan during an address he gave in April 1987 regarding the harm of tariffs.

Despite the fact it was a provincial government which ran the ad, Trump claims:

CANADA CHEATED AND GOT CAUGHT!!!They fraudulently took a big buy ad saying that Ronald Reagan did not like Tariffs, when actually he LOVED TARIFFS FOR OUR COUNTRY, AND ITS NATIONAL SECURITY.

Ah yes, Reagan who loved tariffs so much he asked Congress to pass the Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement in 1988:

The reason for the free trade agreement is simple: Throughout North American history, whenever and wherever trade barriers have been lowered, we've seen our economies bloom like mountain meadows after a spring rain. And this agreement is a sun rising on a new morning of economic vitality for the United States and Canada. It'll produce vast numbers of new jobs and new opportunities on both sides of the border. It'll save U.S. consumers up to $3 billion a year. It'll help keep the North American economy growing for a generation to come.

And yet in a broader sense, the free trade agreement is a case of governments rushing to catch up with their peoples. As one news report noted recently, the U.S.-Canadian relationship has grown ``so vast that government officials acknowledge they cannot keep track of its complex dimensions, let alone control them.''

Yes, our border is what all borders should be: a meeting place, not a dividing line. And one sign of that is that North Americans cross it about 75 million times a year. There's one more -- or, there's more trade, I should say, between the United States and Canada than any other two countries in the world. Why, there's more U.S. trade with Ontario alone than between most nations.

These are not the words of a man who loved tariffs. Perhaps the board of the Ronald Reagan Foundation and Presidential Institute missed those remarks because they are exhibiting Trumpian behavior stating they are "reviewing their legal options." It is a shame that the Reagan Foundation have sacrificed Reagan to the altar of Trump.

Because the reality is Trump's suspension of talks with Canada has nothing to do with this ad. Trump is just playing games and was looking for any reason to suspend talks with Canada just as he did at the end of June when he was "shocked, shocked" to learn that Canada had passed a Digital Services Tax a year earlier. At the time, I wrote:

But rest assured, so long as he is in the White House, Trump is going keep pulling stunts like this against Canada every couple of months.

In this case, it was just under four months. Regardless of the time frame, it demonstrates that Trump isn't acting in good faith and, unlike Reagan, isn't serious about implementing a new free trade deal with Canada.

Oh, I'm sure Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney will make some kind of concession as he did with the DST. Talks will resume and Carney will continue to make visits to the White House only to have the rug pulled out from under him yet again.

At some point, Carney is going to have to say, "Enough!!!" and just walk away and prioritize trade with the EU & Asia. I know Carney doesn't want to get the Trudeau treatment from Trump. But these "negotiations" are simply counterproductive and do not serve Canada's interests.