Trump goes rogue at G-7 summit

Expectations were not exactly high going into the weekend’s heads of government meeting of the Group of Seven (G-7) advanced economies. The outcome, however, was worse than almost anyone could have imagined. In the end, it would have been better if US President Donald Trump had carried out his threat and declined to attend the summit at all.

As it was, he lashed out angrily at the countries that should be his allies, suggested that the grouping should expand to include a thuggish autocracy and upped his threats of trade conflict. By isolating himself so thoroughly, Trump has firmly decided to make the G-7 a G-6 plus one. A forum that used to act as the steering committee for the world economy is now merely another theatre of combat for the president’s misguided trade war.

Attempts by the other G-7 members to engage on the facts came to nothing. The president repeated his delusions that the US is being cheated by its trading partners, including the bizarre accusation that the EU is a protectionist bloc that discriminates against American exports. As it happens, EU tariffs on average are about the same as those of the US.

Trump clearly has no regard for the G-7 as a club of advanced economy democracies. Instead, he broke with the consensus after the annexation of Crimea, and wanted to invite Russia back into the grouping. In effect, the US under Trump has gone rogue.

Some have been commendably courageous in pressing on ahead without the US. Japan revived the Trans-Pacific Partnership after Trump had abrogated it, and Canada, with Mexico, has stood up to the US in its attempts to rewrite the North American Free Trade Agreement.

The G-6 must band together to resist protectionism, attempt to bypass Trump by signing trade deals that exclude the US, and keep the apparatus of co-operation as functional as they can for when sanity hopefully returns to the White House. London, June 11