President Trump said the United States would impose a 10% tariff on Canada in response to an anti-tariff advertisement in Ontario. The ad is disrupting one of the world's largest bilateral trade relationships.Before Trump released the above content on the "Truth Social" platform, the United States and Canada had been in public controversy over the advertisement for many days. The ad cited former U.S. President Ronald Reagan's free trade stance, causing dissatisfaction with current President Trump.
"In light of Canada's gross misrepresentations and hostile conduct, I have decided to impose tariffs of 10 percent on top of Canada's current tariff payments," Trump said on Saturday.
Canada already has the U.S. base tariff rate of 35% applied, and the impact of Trump's new move is unclear. The 35% rate does not apply to most Canadian goods due to exemptions for goods and shipments under the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement. Steel and aluminum products do not enjoy this exemption, and Canadian-made cars and trucks are only partially eligible to be exempt from the 25% tariffs Trump has imposed on most foreign vehicles.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has been engaged in long-term negotiations with the United States to reduce tariffs. Ontario Premier Doug Ford said on Friday that the province would pause its U.S. advertising campaign on Monday following talks with Carney in the hope that talks could restart.
The dispute has reignited uncertainty between the two trading partners. Bilateral trade in goods and services between the United States and Canada reached $900 billion last year, and supply chains in major industries in both countries are highly intertwined.
President Trump announced Thursday that he was terminating all negotiations with Canada over the ad. The ad quoted an excerpt from a 1987 speech by Reagan, in which he defended free trade and attacked tariffs as an outdated idea.
When Trump issued this latest statement, he was heading to Asia for a three-country visit, which included attending the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit in Malaysia and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Summit in South Korea.
When asked if he planned to meet with Carney during the two summits, Trump said as he set off: "I have no plans to do so. I won't meet."
After Trump suspended negotiations for the first time, Carney said Ottawa was willing to restart talks "when the United States is ready" and said the two sides had made progress in talks on steel, aluminum and energy.
Trump's tariffs have dealt a severe blow to Canada's economy - about three-quarters of Canada's exports were sold to the United States last year. Ontario, a province of about 16 million people, is at the heart of the trade war because its steel and auto industries are among the industries Trump has targeted with import taxes.