Canada, France forging a united front
Tensions emerging between G7 leaders and U.S. president Trump
QUEBEC CITY— Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s turn as host to a gaggle of the world’s most powerful leaders has turned into a diplomatic tap dance of epic proportions.
Key summit players acknowledged profound differences ahead of what promises to be an acrimonious face-off with U.S. President Donald Trump at the G7 summit.
As the G7 leaders and more than a dozen other invited heads of government and key financial leaders arrived here under heavy grey skies, several hundred anti-globalization protesters took to Quebec streets.
French President Emmanuel Macron portrayed the other countries as bigger than the U.S. and the U.S. as not embodied by its current leader.
Donald Tusk, President of the European Council, questioned the G7’s continued effectiveness as a bulwark of “protection of the free world against those who disrespect our shared fundamental values: freedom and dignity of the individual, equal rights for people and nations and fair rules.”
Tensions were on display early. Trudeau and Macron publicly staged a united front on climate change, trade and the deal to deter Iran’s nuclear proliferation. They denounced Trump’s trade tariffs on steel and aluminum as “unacceptable,” “counterproductive” and “ridiculous” in Trudeau’s words.
Trump shot back in response late Thursday on Twitter.
“Please tell Prime Minister Trudeau and President Macron that they are charging the U.S. massive tariffs and create nonmonetary barriers. The EU trade surplus with the U.S. is $151 billion, and Canada keeps our farmers and others out. Look forward to seeing them tomorrow.”
Trump followed up that tweet with a more personal shot at Trudeau, mocking him for “being so indignant, bringing up the relationship that the U.S. and Canada had over the many years and all sorts of other things … but he doesn’t bring up the fact that they charge us up to 300 per cent on dairy — hurting our farmers, killing our agriculture!”
Until Thursday, Trump’s attendance was in doubt, his reluctance framed as indifference and an unwillingness to be ganged up on.
Reporters pressed Trudeau and Macron, who have until now adopted a respectful and cordial approach to relations with Trump, if it was time to change tack, as they’d failed to persuade Trump to reverse course on trade. Macron shrugged off a question about whether Trump can or should be isolated, saying he would continue to work closely with the U.S. President.
“When you’re saying that President Trump doesn’t really care, perhaps that’s the case. But no one lives for ever,” Macron responded. “Our countries, the commitments we have made go beyond us.”
The French president said the group of like-minded leaders should not hesitate to speak their minds even at the expense of failing to reach a joint communiqué at the end of it all.”
“The six other countries of the G7 — that’s a market that is bigger than the American market,” said Macron. “So we must look it in the eye,” he said, launching an impassioned defence of multilateralism.
Trudeau said the two-day G7 gathering is a chance for more “frank” discussions. He acknowledged that questions swirl about the “dynamic” at the summit, but said frank discussions are its very purpose.
On Thursday evening Trudeau met with Tusk and European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker who that day highlighted the G7’s existential angst in a column for The New York Times.
Tusk said the “crucial question” on everyone’s mind is whether Trump’s tariff moves “are only incidental changes to current American policy (to which, of course, every president is entitled) or the beginning of a new strategic trend.”
“Simply put: Are they merely seasonal turbulences or rather the first symptoms of the breakup of the Western political community, which the G-7 represents and informally leads?”
Tusk defended the value of the G7, saying “our community cannot be blown apart by aluminum tariffs.” But he added, “it’s clear that something may have changed.”
“Europe should, in a way, be grateful to President Trump. His decisions have made us realize that we need to depend on one another,” Tusk said.
Meanwhile, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe met with Trump in Washington before both arrive here Friday, with an eye to shaping the U.S. President’s approach to North Korea. Trump heads straight to the June 12 summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un in Singapore when the G7 ends Saturday.
Abe went to great lengths to portray himself as an ally of Trump, stressing the two were perfectly aligned on how to deal with the North Korean leader.
However, Abe, too, is deeply concerned about Trump’s tariffs, which have hit Japan as well.
John Kirton, head of the University of Toronto’s G7 research group, said if this summit ends without a final joint communiqué, it will have been the first time in the 43-year history of this particular gathering that the leaders failed to land on an agreed statement.
It wouldn’t, of itself, constitute a failure, said Kirton, but Trudeau is at risk of a diplomatic failure if he attempts to portray a consensus where the U.S. would be happy to point out there was none.