Trump floats ‘Lake America’ amid Canada trade clash
SCMP · 3 SOURCESabout 1 hour ago2 MIN
Summary
U.S. President Donald Trump said on Tuesday he is considering changing the name of Lake Ontario to “Lake America” as the trade dispute with Canada deepens. He made the comment in a Truth Social post, saying the United States did not expect to do much business with Ontario any longer. The proposal echoes Trump’s executive order last year to rename the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America. The remark came as Washington and Ottawa moved further into a tariff confrontation affecting billions of dollars in cross-border trade.
Key Points
- Trump said the United States was giving “serious consideration” to renaming Lake Ontario because it did not expect much business with Ontario any longer.
- Lake Ontario is one of North America’s five Great Lakes, bordering Ontario in Canada and New York state in the United States.
- The United States imposed 50 per cent tariffs on about US$20 billion of Canadian goods after talks broke down over the weekend.
- Canada said it would retaliate dollar-for-dollar, with tariffs scheduled to begin on September 8, according to Xinhua
- Canada’s trade minister Dominic LeBlanc said Ottawa would not respond to the U.S. administration’s daily social media posts
Why It Matters
The dispute involves one of the world’s largest trading relationships, with integrated supply chains in autos, energy, agriculture and manufacturing that can raise costs for companies and workers on both sides. For Hong Kong readers, prolonged U.S.-Canada friction adds another layer of uncertainty to global trade flows and business sentiment at a time when supply chains remain highly interconnected