Trump rejects resuming Canada trade talks after ad dispute

U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday flatly rejected any resumption of trade negotiations with Canada, one week after halting talks amid tensions over an anti-tariff advertisement.

“I really like him a lot,” Trump said of Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney while speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One. “But what they did was wrong.”

The president was referring to a controversial Canadian advertisement that criticized U.S. tariffs  a spot the White House has described as misleading. Trump said that despite Carney’s apology for the “false commercial,” trade discussions would not restart for now.

“So no,” Trump said when asked whether talks might resume, though he emphasized that he maintains a “good relationship” with Carney and that the two held a “positive discussion” on the sidelines of the APEC summit in South Korea earlier this week.

Carney, speaking days earlier at a summit in Malaysia, reiterated Canada’s willingness to return to the negotiating table. “Canada remains open to constructive dialogue,” he said at the time.

The breakdown of talks marks a sharp reversal in relations between two long-standing allies, already strained since Trump’s return to power. Canada is the United States’ second-largest trading partner and a key supplier of steel and aluminum to U.S. industries.