President Donald Trump announced late Thursday evening that he was terminating all trade negotiations with Canada.
The president — who struck a positive tone about the northern nation during his meeting earlier this month with Prime Minister Mark Carney and signaled a desire to make a deal on steel, aluminum, and energy — indicated that the decision to nix trade talks was in response to “egregious behavior,” namely the decision by a provincial government to run TV ads critiquing tariffs south of the border.
‘CANADA CHEATED AND GOT CAUGHT!!!’
“The Ronald Reagan Foundation has just announced that Canada has fraudulently used an advertisement, which is FAKE, featuring Ronald Reagan speaking negatively about Tariffs,” wrote Trump. “The ad was for $75,000,000. They only did this to interfere with the decision of the U.S. Supreme Court, and other courts.”
The U.S. Supreme Court is set to hear oral arguments next month regarding the legality of the tariffs imposed by Trump under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.
Trump apparently saw the ad earlier in the week, telling reporters on Tuesday, “If I was Canada, I’d take that same ad also. They’re actually on television taking ads.”
Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s office indicated last week that it was spending $75 million on an anti-tariff ad that would air on ABC, Bloomberg, CBS, CNBC, ESPN, Fox News, NBC, Newsmax, and other networks.
Ford noted on Oct. 16, “It’s official: Ontario’s new advertising campaign in the U.S. has launched. Using every tool we have, we’ll never stop making the case against American tariffs on Canada. The way to prosperity is by working together.”
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Ontario Premier Doug Ford. Photographer: David Kawai/Bloomberg via Getty Images
The premier, a staunch critic of the raft of high tariffs Trump has imposed on imports from Canada, reportedly suggested to a crowd of Toronto businessmen last week that he was hoping the ad, which contains audio from former President Ronald Reagan’s April 25, 1987, radio address regarding protectionism, would resonate with Republicans.
In his address to the Toronto crowd, Ford cited new research from Yale University’s Budget Lab indicating that “consumers face an overall average effective tariff rate of 18.0%, the highest since 1934,” and that U.S. tariffs and foreign retaliation would cost American families roughly $1,800 a year in lost income.
“That ad — it’s not a nasty ad. It’s actually just very factual,” said Ford. “Coming from a person like Ronald Reagan, every Republican is going to identify that voice.”
The Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute issued a statement on Thursday, claiming that the ad “misrepresents the Presidential Radio Address, and the Government of Ontario did not seek nor receive permission to use and edit the remarks.”
A spokesperson for Ford’s office denied wrongdoing, telling Canadian state media, “The commercial uses an unedited excerpt from one of President Reagan’s public addresses, which is available through public domain.”
Reagan’s remarks in Ford’s ad all hail from the same five-minute speech in which the former president discussed both America’s commitment to free trade and why he felt compelled to impose duties on select Japanese products. Contrary to the suggestion by Ford’s spokesperson, the excerpt of the speech that appears in the 60-second ad has been substantially edited with the apparent intent to drive Ford’s anti-tariff theme. For example:
multiple sentences were cut; one sentence was lifted from its original spot at the outset of the speech and inserted midway through the ad with a “that” apparently swapped out for a “but”;another portion, which originally appeared just before the opening remarks heard in the speech, now appears toward the end of the voice-over; andthe second-last last line of the original speech — “America’s jobs and growth are at stake” — has been moved to serve as a conclusion for the ad.
Below is a transcript of the Reagan voice-over for the ad. The ellipses signal where content was dropped, and those segments lifted from their original context elsewhere in the speech appear in bold:
When someone says, “Let’s impose tariffs on foreign imports,” it looks like they’re doing the patriotic thing by protecting American products and jobs. And sometimes for a short while it works — but only for a short time. [But] over the long run such trade barriers hurt every American worker and consumer. … High tariffs inevitably lead to retaliation by foreign countries and the triggering of fierce trade wars. … Then the worst happens: Markets shrink and collapse; businesses and industries shut down; and millions of people lose their jobs. Throughout the world, there’s a growing realization that the way to prosperity for all nations is rejecting protectionist legislation and promoting fair and free competition. America’s jobs and growth are at stake.
The foundation indicated it was “reviewing its legal options in this matter” and provided a link to the full speech on YouTube, which is labeled as “unrestricted” for both access and use restrictions.
Trump leaned in to his criticism of Canada and the province’s ad on Friday morning, writing, “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.”
“Canada is trying to illegally influence the United States Supreme Court in one of the most important rulings in the history of our Country,” continued Trump. “Canada has long cheated on Tariffs, charging our farmers as much as 400%. Now they, and other countries, can’t take advantage of the U.S. any longer.”
Blaze News has reached out to Premier Ford’s office for comment.
Canadian state media indicated that Carney’s office did not immediately respond to its request for comment.
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Tariffs, Tariff, Trade, Foreign, Canada, Donald trump, Supreme court, Scotus, Ads, Doug ford, Mark carney, Canadian, Trading, Reagan, Politics
