By 10% more he increased them duties to Canada US President Donald Trump in response to an ad by the province of Ontario criticizing the tariffs, escalating tensions in one of the world’s largest bilateral trade relationships.
Trump’s post on Truth Social follows public clashes over the ad, which invoked former President Ronald Reagan’s stance as a supporter of free trade and drew the ire of the current US President, prompting him to suspend trade negotiations with Canada.
“Due to their gross misrepresentation and hostile act, I am raising the tariff on Canada by 10% on top of what they are paying now,” Trump said on Saturday (10/26/2025), according to Bloomberg.
The US president did not specify the scope of his new measure. While Canada faces a basic tariff of 35% from the US, this rate does not apply to most Canadian products due to the exemption for products and shipments made under the rules of the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement. This means, for example, that millions of barrels of oil a day still flow from Canada to the US duty-free.
Steel and aluminum products do not have this exemption, as they are subject to 50% US tariffs on foreign metals, and Canadian-made cars and trucks are only partially eligible for an exemption from Trump’s 25% tariffs on most foreign cars.
“Tariffs, at any level, remain a tax first on America and second on the competitiveness of North America as a whole,” Candace Laing, head of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce in Ottawa, said in a statement, adding: “We hope this threat of escalation can be resolved through diplomatic channels and further negotiations.”
Premier Mark Carney has opened talks with the U.S. on reducing tariffs, while Ontario Premier Doug Ford pledged to suspend Ontario-funded advertising in the U.S. on Monday after speaking with Carney in hopes talks will resume.
After Trump suspended the talks, Carney said Ottawa was ready to resume talks “when the Americans are ready” and added that the two sides had made progress on steel, aluminum and energy.
Instead, White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett told Fox News on Friday that negotiations with Canada are “not going well” and that Trump is “very disappointed.”
The White House had no comment Saturday on the tariff hike. Dominic LeBlanc, Canada’s minister responsible for trade with the US, said in a statement that his country will continue to focus on “achieving results that benefit workers and families” in both the US and Canada, and that progress is best achieved through direct engagement.
A Ford spokesman said: “The Prime Minister’s statement from Friday remains in place.”
Trump said the ads appeared to be timed to influence a US Supreme Court case challenging the legality of many of his global tariffs, threatening a pillar of his re-election campaign and subsequent economic agenda. The court is scheduled to hear oral arguments in the case on Nov. 5.
Trump said the court would cause disaster if it overturned tariffs on his country, including forcing the US government to repay companies billions of dollars in tariffs.
The television ad is a long-term strategy of the Ontario government in its effort to fight the US tariffs — the Reagan ad is not the first such campaign. Before that blast, a spokesman for the Ontario premier said the government planned to run the ad featuring Reagan for months on various networks, at an estimated cost of C$75 million (US$53.6 million).
The conflict has reignited uncertainty between two partners that traded $900 billion worth of goods and services last year and have closely linked supply chains for important industries.
Ontario, with a population of 16 million just across the border, is at the center of the trade war because of its steel and auto industries — two sectors Trump has hit with his import tariffs. About three-quarters of Canada’s merchandise exports went to the US last year.
The US president said Thursday he would end all talks with Canada over the ad, which used quotes from a 1987 Reagan speech in which he defended free trade and condemned tariffs as an outdated concept that stifles innovation, raises prices and hurts US workers.
When Reagan gave the radio address, he had just imposed “selective” tariffs on Japanese electronics products for what he considered unfair trade practices. At the same time, he used the speech to urge Congress not to pass a protectionist trade bill targeting Japan.
Reagan’s quotes were compiled from various parts of his speech, leading the Ronald Reagan Foundation and Institute to protest that the ad misrepresented the full text of the speech. The foundation said it was considering its legal options.
Trump made his latest announcement while en route to a three-nation trip to Asia that includes stops at the Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit in Malaysia and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in South Korea.
Carney is on an extended trip to Asia, where he will also attend summits and work to strengthen trade ties with other countries.
Asked if he had plans to meet with Carney during the two summits, the US president said at the start of his trip: “I have no such intention, no.”