The United States ambassador to Canada, Pete Hoekstra, says it’s now unlikely that a tariff deal can be made between the two nations before the new year. It’s the latest in the Trump administration’s displeasure over a televised anti-tariff ad featuring former president Ronald Reagan.
But Ontario premier Doug Ford, whose provincial government is responsible for the ad, continued to defend it.
President Trump called off trade talks with Canada because of the ad campaign, which featured former president Reagan saying that tariffs do not work.
Trump called the ad “fake” and claiming Reagan loved tariffs, and then ended the trade talks. When the ad wasn't pulled from U.S. networks fast enough, he said he would slap an additional 10-percent tariff on Canadian products. But he wouldn’t say when they would go into effect.
The ads were pulled on Monday, but Ford said the message conveyed by Reagan was absolutely true that protectionism does not work, and the message got out there.
“What we did, we ended up with earned media of anywhere from three to four hundred million people, and impressions, we call them views from the people at home,” Ford said. “I was getting constituents calling me saying that relatives in India saw it, in Italy, Portugal, Scotland, my niece in UK said it was running all over, and every outlet in the U.S. So, we achieved our goal and now we put it on pause.”
Trump, who is in southeast Asia for a pair of summits, said he didn’t want to talk to Prime Minister Carney while there, and not for some time.
Ford added that Carney and his chief of staff saw the ads before they aired.
Meanwhile Washington’s ambassador to Ottawa says before the ads aired, a sectoral deal between the two countries was very close, but no longer.
“I don’t see any way that there will be an agreement before Thanksgiving,” Hoekstra said. “I’m not sure what it will take to get people back to the table in a constructive and positive mood.”
Hoekstra blamed Canada for the souring of the relationship, suggesting that Canada burnt the bridges with America, and that Donald Trump did not slam the door.
