Trump raises Canada tariffs by 10 points, halts talks after Reagan ad

President Donald Trump announced on Saturday that he would raise U.S. tariffs on Canadian goods by an additional 10 percentage points and suspend trade negotiations after an advertisement paid for by Ontario used archival clips of former president Ronald Reagan criticizing tariffs. The move escalated a dispute that has already placed talks on steel, aluminum and autos under strain and landed Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney in the middle of a diplomatic scramble while on a trip to Asia.

Speaking from Malaysia at an Association of Southeast Asian Nations meeting, Carney said Ottawa stood ready to resume negotiations. "We stand ready to sit down with the United States, myself with the president, my colleagues with their colleagues, when the U.S. is ready to sit down," he told reporters, and he reiterated that trade talks are the responsibility of the federal government. Carney also said his Asia visits, which include stops in Singapore and South Korea, are aimed at diversifying Canada’s trade relationships and reducing dependence on the United States.

The dispute began after Ontario premier Doug Ford commissioned a one minute ad that spliced passages of Reagan’s 1987 radio...