Anti-tariffs ad sparks 10% rise in Canada's import tax

WASHINGTON — United States President Donald Trump said on Saturday he was increasing tariffs on Canada by an additional 10 percent "above what they're paying now", as he reacted again to an ad by Canada's Ontario Province, a day after it was aired during baseball's World Series broadcast.

Trump on Thursday ended trade talks with Ottawa over the tariff-related ad, which he said was misleading. He announced the higher tariffs in a Truth Social post on Saturday referencing the ad, which features a video of former US president Ronald Reagan saying that tariffs cause trade wars and economic disaster. The ad had already been running for some days before Trump first reacted to it on Thursday night.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford said on Friday that after discussions with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, Ontario would pause the ad campaign on Monday so that trade talks could resume.

The advertisement was aired on Friday during the broadcast for Game 1 of Major League Baseball World Series, in which the Toronto Blue Jays are facing off against the Los Angeles Dodgers.

"Their advertisement was to be taken down, immediately, but they let it run last night during the World Series, knowing that it was a fraud," Trump posted. "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."

The US Commerce Department, the White House and the office of the Canadian prime minister did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

It was not clear what goods would be affected by the newly announced tariffs. The majority of Canadian exports to the US are exempt from tariffs because of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement signed during Trump's first term.

In August, the Trump administration imposed a 35 percent tariff on Canadian goods not covered by the agreement. However, Canada's economy has suffered from sector tariffs of 50 percent imposed this year by Trump on steel and aluminum from all countries.

The ad by the Ontario government has a voice-over of Reagan criticizing tariffs on foreign goods while saying they cause job losses and trade wars. The video uses five complete sentences from the five-minute weekly address, spliced together out of sequence.

Agencies via Xinhua