Canadian officials have mostly dismissed President Donald Trump's comments on renaming Lake Ontario as trade tensions between the United States and Canada continue to rise.
Trump said Aug. 25 that he was considering renaming Lake Ontario to Lake America. His comments came after trade talks between the two countries broke down, with both sides calling for higher tariffs. Trump also shared a graphic of the name change.
“The United States is giving serious consideration to changing the name of Lake Ontario to Lake America in that we don’t expect to doing much business with Ontario any longer,” Trump said in the social media post.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford said Trump’s proposed name change as “a lot of rhetoric,” while stressing the province’s economic
ties to the United States in an Aug. 25interview with CNN.
Trump’s announcement came after trade talks between the two countries collapsed Aug. 22. That’s the day tariffs rose 50% on about 5% of Canadian imports such as wine, dairy, hockey sticks and cement, reported USA TODAY.
Lake Ontario is the smallest of the Great Lakes separating the United States and Canada, with the international border running through the middle of each waterway, and is a key shipping route to the Atlantic Ocean. Lake Ontario runs along western New York state on the U.S. side, with Toronto sitting along its Canadian shore.
Why did Trump put tariffs on Canada?
Canadian goods have been slammed with 50% tariffs as Trump has argued that the tariffs are needed to protect U.S. industries and respond to what his administration considers unfair Canadian trade practices.
Ambassador Jamieson Greer, U.S. Trade Representative said Canada had been unfair to products from America in a July 20 news release and said that Trump is holding Canada accountable for "its retaliation and discrimination."
“Specifically, Canada has taken U.S. alcohol products off Canadian shelves, given better market access to dairy products from the European Union, and has put a cap on U.S. vehicle exports to Canada from companies reshoring to the United States," Greer said in the news release.
USA TODAY contributed to this story.
Natassia Paloma may be reached at npaloma@gannett.com, @NatassiaPaloma on X, natassia_paloma on Instagram, and Natassia Paloma on Facebook.
This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: Why Trump wants to rename Lake Ontario amid Canada trade fight
