Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has apologised to Donald Trump over an anti-tariff TV advert using remarks once made by former US President Ronald Reagan.
The US President was so infuriated by the ad, which aired in the US, that he increased tariffs on the country and halted US-Canada trade talks. Canada is the only G7 country which has yet to reach a trade deal with the US in the face of tariffs.
The ad, which was broadcast during baseball’s World Series, uses a ‘voiceover’ from fellow Republican Reagan – US President between 1981 and 1989 – saying tariffs caused trade wars and economic disaster.
Created by the Ontario government to hit back at trade tariffs, it uses comments Reagan had made in a 1987 radio address about tariffs imposed on Japan, apparently edited out of sequence.
Mr Trump called it ‘misleading’, posting on his Truth Social network: ‘Because of their serious misrepresentation of the facts, and hostile act, I am increasing the Tariff on Canada by 10% over and above what they are paying now.’
Carney, former Bank of England governor, apparently sanctioned the commercial which had been commissioned by anti-tariff campaigner, Ontario Premier Doug Ford.
Ford has heavily criticised the Trump administration, claiming its tariffs are hurting Ontario’s carmakers and steel industry. The ad was pulled following Mr Trump’s reaction.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has apologised to Donald Trump over an anti-tariff TV advert using remarks once made by former US President Ronald Reagan
On Friday, Mr Trump said he had accepted Mr Carney’s apology
Trump set a 10 percent hike in tariffs on Canada after the ad came out
Mr Carney confirmed today that he did ‘apologise to the president’ although he tempered his apology with a claim that he had told Doug Ford he did ‘not want to go forward with the ad’.
Speaking at the Asia-Pacific summit in South Korea, he said he had apologised privately to Mr Trump at a dinner hosted by South Korea’s president last Wednesday.
‘I did apologise to the president,’ Mr Carney admitted.
On Friday, Mr Trump said he had accepted Mr Carney’s apology but would not be restarting trade talks, commenting:
‘I like him [Carney] a lot but what they did was wrong. He apologised for what they did with the commercial because it was a false commercial.’
Meanwhile Ford boasted that the ad campaign was ‘very effective’ because it had upset Trump.
‘You know why President Trump is so upset right now? Because it was effective. It was working, it woke up the whole country,’ said Ford.
