The latest trade dispute between the United States and Canada comes as the two countries face off in different arenas, the World Series.
President Trump ends trade talks with Canada over President Reagan’s tariff ads
President Donald Trump says he is ending trade negotiations with Canada after he accused President Ronald Reagan of using him in an ad denouncing tariffs and trade wars.
WASHINGTON – Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney wanted to make a friendly bet with President Donald Trump. Carney confidently predicted that the Toronto Blue Jays would beat the Los Angeles Dodgers in the World Series.
However, the bet was never made. Trump did not return calls.
On Thursday, Oct. 23, the night before the World Series opener, Mr. Carney visited the Blue Jays at Toronto’s Rogers Center and joked, “I think he’s afraid of making bets. He hates losing.”
But before the day was over, President Trump sent a message of his own to Canada, not about baseball, but about tariffs.
In an angry message posted on social media, President Trump announced he was ending trade negotiations with Canada over a TV ad he said made misleading statements about tariffs. President Trump claimed the ad was aimed at influencing the U.S. Supreme Court, which is preparing a case that could decide the fate of significant tariffs on imported goods.
“Tariffs are critical to America’s national security and economy,” Trump said. “Based on their egregious conduct, all trade negotiations with Canada are hereby terminated.”
It was the latest in a series of clashes with Trump’s normally friendly neighbor to the north. Since returning to office in January, President Trump has infuriated Canadians by imposing punitive tariffs on Canadian goods and suggesting Canada should become one of 51 countries.cent He has a generally disdainful attitude toward Canadian leaders, particularly former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, whom he repeatedly derisively refers to as “the governor.”
The latest rivalry came as Americans and Canadians were about to square off in areas other than politics. The Blue Jays are playing in the World Series for the first time in over 30 years and are looking to dethrone the defending champion Los Angeles Dodgers.
The White House did not respond to questions about whether Trump intended to accept Carney’s bet on the outcome of the series.
What would Ronald Reagan do?
The 60-second ad, which infuriated President Trump, was scheduled to air during the series opener. The spot, which was paid for by the Ontario government rather than Canada’s federal government, features the voice of former President Ronald Reagan, speaking in a radio address on April 25, 1987. President Reagan’s remarks came days after he increased tariffs on some Japanese imports after the country violated the semiconductor trade agreement.
All of President Reagan’s statements in the ad are exact reflections of what he said in his speech. However, rather than playing the remarks in the order in which they were spoken or reproducing the entire speech, the ad selects and splices together specific lines from the five-minute speech.
“When someone says, ‘Let’s put tariffs on foreign imports,’ it looks like they’re doing the patriotic thing of protecting American products and American jobs. And sometimes it works for a short period of time, but only for a short period of time,” President Reagan said in the ad, as he said in his speech.
However, the next line of the ad was late in President Reagan’s speech. “High tariffs will inevitably lead to foreign retaliation and a fierce trade war,” the ad says, omitting additional remarks from President Reagan and continuing:
The Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute said the ad “misrepresents” the speech and that the Ontario government did not have permission to use or edit President Reagan’s remarks.
The White House objected because the ad omitted certain lines from President Reagan’s speech. “As I have often said, our commitment to free trade is also our commitment to fair trade,” the former president said in his opening remarks.
President Trump has argued that the steep tariffs he has imposed on imports from Canada and other countries around the world are a response to unfair trade practices against the United States.
The U.S. Supreme Court is scheduled to hear oral arguments on Nov. 5 in a case that will decide the fate of tariffs that President Trump unilaterally imposed, citing the International Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1977.
A lower court ruled that President Trump overstepped his authority under a law historically used to impose economic sanctions and other penalties on foreign enemies. President Trump said the Supreme Court’s decision is so important that he may attend the court’s arguments in person.
In a post on his social media platform Truth Social, President Trump claimed that the Canadian ad misrepresented President Reagan’s position on tariffs.
“Canada cheated and got caught!!!” he wrote. “They fraudulently received expensive purchasing ads that said President Ronald Reagan didn’t like tariffs, when in reality he loved tariffs for our country and national security.”
What did Reagan say?
But Mr. Trump greatly misunderstood Mr. Reagan’s position on tariffs. President Reagan made it clear in his speech that he did not like tariffs. “Imposing such tariffs and trade barriers and all kinds of restrictions is a step I don’t want to take,” the late president said.
Hours after President Trump announced he was canceling trade talks with Canada, Carney told reporters in Canada that U.S. trade policy has fundamentally changed from the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s.
“The United States imposes tariffs on all of our trading partners to varying degrees,” Carney said. “And in that context, our officials and my colleagues have engaged in detailed and constructive negotiations with our American colleagues.”
Carney said much progress had been made before President Trump ended the talks. “When the U.S. side is ready to discuss, we are ready to pick up on that progress and build on that progress,” he said.
“Great difficulty”
President Trump’s sudden decision to cancel negotiations marks the second time in the past four months that trade talks with Canada have been called off.
In June, President Trump ended trade talks with Canada over a proposed digital services tax targeting U.S. technology companies. President Trump said the tax amounted to a “direct and blatant attack” on the United States. Negotiations resumed a few days later after Canada canceled the tax shortly before it took effect.
President Trump warned in July that trade talks could be again in jeopardy after Canada announced support for a Palestinian state. President Trump, an ally of Israel, lamented on social media that Canada’s decision “makes it very difficult to get a trade deal with Israel.”
“Oh, Canada!!” he added.
Recent disruptions in trade negotiations have even alarmed the Vatican, with Pope Leo, the first Roman Catholic pope from the United States, expressing concern about continued friction between the two neighbors.
Canada and the United States are “facing great challenges,” Leo said at a conference on possible church reform.
“These two countries, once considered our closest allies, have at times been pulled apart from each other,” he said.
Canada is the United States’ second largest trading partner after Mexico and the largest buyer of American exports. The company bought $349.4 billion in U.S. goods last year and exported $412.7 billion to the U.S., according to U.S. Census Bureau data.
Meanwhile, Ontario Premier Doug Ford, who posted his first anti-tariff ad on X on October 16, has taken steps to ease tensions with President Trump. Ford said the ad will air during the first two games of the World Series, but will be paused on Monday, Oct. 27, to allow trade talks to continue.
Ford wrote on social media that the purpose of the ad was always to “start a conversation about the type of economy Americans want to build and the impact tariffs will have on workers and businesses.”
“We reached the highest level of U.S. audiences and achieved our goals,” he said.
“Canada and the United States are neighbors, friends and allies,” he added. “We are much stronger when we work together.”
And while President Trump may be in charge of trade tensions between the two countries, Canada currently has the upper hand in the World Series.
The Blue Jays defeated the Dodgers 11-4 in the series opener.
Contributed by: Reuters
Michael Collins writes about the intersection of politics and culture. He is a veteran reporter who has covered the White House and Congress. Follow him on X: @mcollinsNEWS
Joey Garrison is USA TODAY’s White House correspondent. Follow him on X: @joeygarrison
