Today we focus on Article 10: To resume trade talks with the United States, Canada will suspend anti-tariff advertising in the United States.
The cause of the incident can be traced back to a large-scale advertising campaign launched by Ontario Governor Doug Ford last week. As Canada's largest manufacturing hub, the province has been heavily affected by Trump's tariff policies, especially the 35% to 50% tariffs on key industries such as steel, aluminum and automobiles. The tariffs have caused costs for Ontario export businesses to soar, affecting tens of thousands of jobs. To this end, Ontario spent about 75 million Canadian dollars (about 380 million RMB) to launch advertisements on American TV networks. The advertisements cleverly borrowed a clip of a radio speech by the late former US President Ronald Reagan in 1987: high tariffs "will inevitably trigger foreign retaliation and trigger a fierce trade war". In this way, we call on the American people to reflect on the potential harm of tariffs to their own economy. As the advertisement was broadcast during the Major Baseball World Series and coincided with the victory of Toronto Blue Jays, the influence was further amplified.
However, this propaganda strategy quickly triggered Trump’s strong rebound. On October 24, Trump posted on social platforms accusing the advertisement of “fraudulent” content, accusing him of manipulating Reagan’s speech. He then threatened to terminate all trade negotiations with Canada and impose an additional 10% tariff, saying the move was a response to Canada’s “unwillingness to seriously dialogue.” A White House spokesman also criticized the advertisement as “misleading.” The Reagan Foundation said the advertisement was unlicensed and selectively clipped, distorting Reagan’s original intent.
Faced with Trump's strong counterattack, Canada quickly adjusted its strategy. On October 25, Ontario Governor Doug Ford announced after a phone call with Prime Minister Carney that he would suspend all anti-tariff advertising in the United States starting next Monday (October 27) to "get trade negotiations back on track." But Ford said the ad had successfully reached its target audience and would still be aired during the World Series over the weekend to achieve the set exposure.
Finally, is the ad really a false selective editing as Trump alleged? Reagan's original speech was on April 25, 1987 and lasted for about five minutes, with the theme of "Free and Fair Trade." In his speech, Reagan did strongly criticize the long-term harm of high tariffs, pointing out: "When someone says,'Let's impose tariffs on foreign imports,' it may seem like a patriotic act to protect American products and jobs, but in fact, high tariffs will inevitably trigger foreign retaliation and trigger a fierce trade war. Then, the worst happened, and trade barriers hurt every American worker and consumer." Reagan emphasized that tariffs could only be used for a short period of time in "specific circumstances"(such as his tariff on Japanese semiconductors at the time), otherwise it would increase domestic dependence on government intervention, reduce competition, raise prices, and lead to job loss. He also criticized more trade barrier proposals put forward by Congress and supported free trade as a mainstream policy.
Therefore, this advertisement does exist in the case of selective clips, but does not distort the core of Reagan's original intention, only by streamlining and rearranging the clips to highlight its anti-tariff views.