Canada’s great, Trump says
HAMBURG (CP) — G20 leaders managed to bring U.S. President Donald Trump on side against protectionist trade policies, but he still stands alone when it comes to resisting action on climate change.
The Paris climate change agreement was one area where the leaders of 20 of the world’s richest countries could not reach unanimous agreement in Hamburg in their two-day meeting.
“We take note of the decision of the United States of America to withdraw from the Paris Agreement,” reads the final communique.
Trump also insisted on having fossil fuels mentioned in the document. Other countries resisted, but they finally agreed to a special paragraph for Trump to see the U.S. pledge to help other countries access and use fossil fuels more cleanly and efficiently.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel went into the summit as the host looking to either get agreement from Trump on climate change or isolate him She succeeded, though she wasn’t celebrating.
“Unfortunately — and I deplore this — the United States of America left the climate agreement, or rather announced their intention of doing this,” Merkel said in German at her closing press conference.
The isolation of Trump that Merkel has been pushing for was evident in the communique which says “the leaders of the other G20 members state that the Paris Agreement is irreversible.”
Some of the other leaders, from Europe in particular, had hoped Trudeau’s better relationship with Trump could have some sort of influence on him.
That Trump has some respect for his Canadian counterpart was evident Saturday during a speech at a morning event where he gushed over Trudeau.
“We have a great neighbour in Canada and Justin is doing a spectacular job in Canada,” Trump said.
“Everybody loves him and they love him for a reason so congratulations on the job you’re doing.”
Trudeau did not have a specific bilateral meeting with Trump at this summit, but he did speak with him on the sidelines of the meeting several times, mainly about climate change and trade issues.
Trudeau said in conversations with the president he underscored the fact economic growth and environmental protections “can and must” go together.
“I emphasized this is something that matters deeply to citizens and impacts directly on our economic growth now and into the future,” he said.
Nevertheless Trump didn’t budge and in fact ended up leaving the G20 meeting Saturday without making any public statements.
Trade was another mainstay of negotiations both around the full table and on the sidelines. Trudeau and Jean-Claude Juncker, president of the European Union Commission, announced just prior to the end of the summit Saturday that the CanadaEurope free trade agreement known as CETA will be provisionally implemented on Sept. 21.
Signed last year and ratified by both the European Parliament and Canadian Parliament, all 28 EU members have to ratify it individually as well. Only Denmark and Latvia have to date.
On Trade with the U.S., Trudeau said he and Trump spoke about both the softwood lumber dispute and the U.S. investigation to decide whether to apply import tariffs on steel.