What’s in Reagan advert that caused US-Canada trade talks to collapse?

“Over the long run, such trade barriers hurt every American, worker and consumer.”

In the advert, these words immediately follow the first line. Again, Reagan did speak these words.

However, in the original address the two sentences are not connected. In fact they are separated by more than a minute of speech, and the “Over the long run..” line actually comes first.

After introducing the Japanese state visit, Reagan starts to explain why he recently introduced the tariffs.

He says in the original speech: “Imposing such tariffs or trade barriers and restrictions of any kind are steps that I am loath to take. And in a moment I’ll mention the sound economic reasons for this: that over the long run such trade barriers hurt every American worker and consumer.”

Reagan says some companies had been “engaging in unfair trade practices” and going against an agreement with the US – and that this was therefore a “special case”.

This sets the tone for the rest of the address, which he dedicates to making clear his commitment to free trade and the dangers of high tariffs.