Trump says he would "never interfere with Canadians speaking French" over language protections

Canada began applying new tariffs to roughly $20 billion in U.S. exports on Tuesday, its latest response to duties imposed by President Donald Trump, while the two leaders blamed each other for the breakdown of trade negotiations. Canadian officials say the U.S. side demanded changes to bilingual labelling and French-language media rules; Prime Minister Mark Carney has described those safeguards as essential to Canadian identity. Trump dismissed that account, saying he would not seek to alter Canadian language protections and arguing Carney was using the dispute to win political support. The U.S. trade ambassador has denied language issues caused the impasse. Trump separately threatened to block Bombardier sales in the U.S. unless the plane maker builds there. The standoff is significant because the countries are major trading partners and because it coincides with U.S. midterm campaigns.