This week, the United States government took trade tensions with Canada to a new level. Then, with little warning, they announced a new 10 percent tariff on Canadian goods. This decision comes on the heels of the cancellation of trade talks. In early January, President Donald Trump reacted strongly against a Canadian commercial that employed a creative adaptation of a well-known address given by former President Ronald Reagan.
The provincial government of Ontario even created a negative ad focused on Reagan’s dire predictions coming true. He warned that these tariffs might trigger “bitter trade wars” and lead to massive job losses. The problem was that the ad simply re-ordered Reagan’s statements so that they were oppositional and re-framed his original ideas. This was enough to lead President Trump to announce that trade negotiations with Canada were over.
Prime Minister Mark Carney of Canada took responsibility for the situation, recognizing his role in managing the relationship with the United States. To minimize the damage, Carney called Trump personally and apologized for the ad.
“I did apologise to the president. The president was offended,” – Canadian PM Mark Carney
The trade war, a simmering dispute for more than a year, has poisoned US-Canadian relations. In 2022 alone, the two countries exchanged around $761.8 billion in goods, creating a high degree of economic interdependence. The ongoing drive by Trump’s administration for global tariffs has resulted in punishing duties on Canadian exports, making matters worse.
When the attack ad came out, Washington decided to fight back. He said it was intended to illegally influence a US Supreme Court ruling that’s expected soon on Trump’s tariff-related policies. At the time, Trump was happy to comment on Carney’s apology and call it a win—after all, the commercial was a blatant mischaracterization.
“He [Carney] was very nice, he apologised for what they did with the commercial because it was a false commercial. It was the exact opposite; Ronald Reagan loved tariffs and they tried to make it look the other way.” – Donald Trump
In front of these rising tensions over the ad and trade negotiations, Carney said,
“I’m the one who’s responsible, in my role as prime minister, for our relationship with the president of the United States, and the federal government is responsible for the foreign relationship with the US government.”
Though reconciliation efforts are ongoing, relations between the two countries are still tense. Ten years later, both countries are still reeling from the effects of this diplomatic disaster. The suspended trade negotiations signal a hard journey ahead for both countries. Yet more than ever, they will need to watch their economic connections, particularly hauler relationships, as they go.
