Justice Department halts antitrust cooperation with Canada - report

Investing.com -- The Justice Department's antitrust division was told earlier this week to stop all work with the Canadian government, according to a Friday report by The Wall Street Journal citing an internal email.

In a Wednesday email with the subject line "Pause on Canada," Lynda Marshall, the chief of the antitrust division's international section, directed officials to halt all cooperation on cases and engagement on policy issues with Canadian authorities. She gave no reason for the order but said she would "circle back if the guidance changes."

On Friday, section chiefs in the division were asked in another email to provide lists detailing areas of cooperation with Canada by the end of the day.

Antitrust officials said such a directive has little precedent and that the Justice Department regularly cooperates with competition authorities in other countries, even those that don't have good relations with the U.S.

Canadian and U.S. antitrust authorities have multiple agreements in place to increase cooperation. Since the 2000s, they have worked together on major investigations of price-fixing in the auto parts and air cargo industries. They have collaborated for many years on merger investigations that affect both countries, including in the tech and aerospace industries.

The trade dispute between the two countries has been growing since talks broke down late last month. The Trump administration imposed 50% tariffs on $20 billion of Canadian goods, prompting Prime Minister Mark Carney to retaliate with similar tariffs on a range of U.S. goods.

Last week, Trump signed an executive order to change the name of Lake Ontario to "Lake America," declaring that Canada "has been ripping us off for a long time on trade, very sadly."

Earlier this week, Carney criticized the taunting of Canada by U.S. officials, saying it wasn't constructive toward resolving outstanding trade issues.

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