Trudeau warns of difficult G7 talks
PM admits like-minded allies face ‘frank’ and ‘difficult conversations’
OTTAWA— The jockeying, arguing and behind-the-scenes spin have begun. And the G7 leaders of the world’s seven largest developed economies aren’t even in a room together yet.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is set to host the world leaders, welcoming the first to arrive, French President Emmanuel Macron, Wednesday in Ottawa in advance of the Charlevoix summit.
The Canadian prime minister admitted the group of supposedly like-minded allies faces “frank and at times difficult conversations around the G7 table, particularly with the U.S. president on trade, on tariffs,” he said. “At the same time, this is why we have G7 meetings.”
Macron said this year’s summit comes at “a critical moment” with “essential” issues on the table such as the economy, climate change and geopolitical concerns. However, senior Canadian officials, speaking on a background basis, are blunt about the limited prospects for agreement.
There will be common ground on cleaner oceans, gender equality, and the international security threat posed by North Korea. But the gulf between U.S. President Donald Trump and many of his Western allies is vast: on trade, on tariffs, on climate change and on complex security issues like the U.S. withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal, which included sanctions on companies — many European — doing business in Iran. And so, in Canada’s view, success would not be defined by joint statements.
“Honestly, I think success looks like: the G7 still exists,” said one senior official.
The official said the forum itself is “incredibly valuable” and leaders such as Trudeau, Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel are unlikely to reach agreement with Trump for the sake of a communiqué.
“We’d all much rather not compromise our own values and positions on things in an effort to be able to sign a meaningless piece of paper,” said the official.
Trump has taken centre stage with confrontational trade actions that hit all of his G7 partners over recent weeks. And so none are in a mood to play nice for the sake of it.
“It is apparent that we have a serious problem with multilateral agreements here, and so there will be contentious discussions,” Merkel told the German parliament. “There must not be a compromise simply for the sake of a compromise.”
Trump’s economic adviser Larry Kudlow downplayed the impact of it all Wednesday, calling trade tensions within the G7 “a family quarrel” and “tactical disagreements.” Grilled by reporters about the impact of Trump’s actions and whether he was abandoning stalwart U.S. allies and withdrawing from an rules-based international trading system, Kudlow insisted Trump has the “backbone for the fight” that previous administrations lacked.
“I think free world trade is a very good thing indeed. But it is broken, and President Trump is trying to fix it,” Kudlow said. He slammed the WTO, the global trading body to which Canada and the EU have filed notices of lawsuits against the U.S., even as he insisted the U.S. is still “working through” it.
Adding to the tensions were reports out of Washington Wednesday that Trump had confronted his G7 host, Trudeau, in a “testy” May 25 phone call. CNN first reported that when Trudeau asked Trump to justify his decision to slap stiff tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum imports in the name of national security, Trump replied, “Didn’t you guys burn down the White House in 1812?” (British forces attacked and burned the White House in 1814 in retaliation for the American attack on Fort York in1812.)
An official PMO readout of the call said the two had discussed NAFTA “including bringing the negotiations to a timely conclusion,” adding Trudeau raised “strong concerns” about Trump’s intention to expand tariffs to automobile imports, “given the mutually beneficial integration of the Canadian and American auto industries.”
In the crosshairs for similar levies on automobile imports to the U.S. are Trump’s other G7 partners such as Japan, Germany, France, Italy and the U.K.
British Prime Minister Theresa May talked to Trump by phone for a half-hour Monday and reiterated what Trudeau and others have told him about the tariffs: that they are disappointing and unjustified, a threat to jobs, and simply no way to treat friends and allies. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will have a twohour meeting with Trump at the White House on Thursday before heading to Quebec.