G-20 fails to reconcile key differences
Leaders do not view global issues as U.S. president sees them.
President Donald Trump and other world leaders on Saturday emerged from two days of talks unable to resolve key differences on core issues such as climate change and globalization, slapping an exclamation point on a divisive summit that left other nations fearing for the future of global alliances in the Trump era.
The scale of disharmony was remarkable for the annual Group of 20 meeting of world economic powers, a venue better known for sleepy bromides about easy-to-agree-on issues. Even as negotiators made a goodfaith effort to bargain toward consensus, European leaders said a chasm has opened between the United States and the rest of the world.
“Our world has never been so divided,” French President Emmanuel Macron said as the talks broke up. “Centrifugal forces have never been so powerful. Our common goods have never been so threatened.”
The divisions were most bitter on climate change, where 19 leaders formed a unified front against Trump. But even in areas of nominal compromise, such as trade, top European leaders said they have little faith that an agreement forged today could hold tomorrow.
Macron said world leaders found common ground on terrorism but were otherwise split on numerous important topics. He also said there were rising concerns about “authoritarian regimes, and even within the Western world, there are real divisions and uncertainties that didn’t exist just a few short years ago.”
“I will not concede anything in the direction of those who are pushing against multilateralism,” Macron said, without directly referring to Trump. “We need better coordination, more coordination. We need those organizations that were created out of the Second World War. Otherwise, we will be moving back toward narrow-minded nationalism.”
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who hosted the summit in the port city of Hamburg, said there had been some areas of agreement. But she did little to hide her disappointment about U.S. actions on climate change.
“Wherever there is no consensus that can be achieved, disagreement has to be made clear,” Merkel said at the end of the summit. “Unfortunately — and I deplore this — the United States of America left the climate agreement.
“I am gratified to note that the other 19 members of the G-20 feel the Paris agreement is irreversible,” Merkel said.
Perhaps as a way to emphasize global unity — minus the United States — Macron announced there would be another climate summit in Paris in December to mark the second anniversary of the climate accord.
On trade, G-20 leaders agreed to try to address what the White House contends is a global steel glut. Trump officials have threatened to restrict steel imports after repeatedly alleging that China subsidizes it steelmakers, helping it undercut prices and putting U.S. steel jobs at risk.
The promises to draw up policy changes on steel production were a victory, White House officials said.
One official said that Europeans were sharply unsettled by their encounters with Trump — and they recognized that may be the intention of the White House.
“It seems clear that President Trump is committed to being less predictable and not necessarily seeing predictability as positive in foreign policy,” said the European official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to candidly assess the White House.
The summit came after Trump softened his opposition to some other multilateral institutions. After challenging the NATO defense alliance, he endorsed its allfor-one, one-for-all principles just ahead of the G-20 summit. And Trump has agreed to abide by the North American Free Trade Agreement, so long as it can be renegotiated.
White House officials also saw the potential to draw a win from the Hamburg summit, even if their expectations were measured. They hoped to explain Trump’s priorities and find compromises, even small ones.
Their assessment of the outcome was sharply different from Merkel and Macron’s cautious tone.
“It’s been a really great success,” a senior White House official who was not authorized to speak on the record said Saturday before Trump departed for the United States. “We are going to get some of the priorities of the administration” out of this summit. White House officials pointed to several changes to the G-20’s official statement on trade policy, saying it better reflects the Trump administration’s point of view.
“We recognize that the benefits of international trade and investment have not been shared widely enough,” the G-20 countries said in a joint statement. “We need to better enable our people to seize the opportunities.”
Similar language was not in the G-20 agreement in 2016, before Trump’s election.
The White House also won a bitter battle over its desire to include language that promoted U.S. fossils fuels in the final statement — wording that European leaders sharply opposed.
Trump also had the chance to forge one-on-one relationships with leaders as the summit unfolded around him. It included his first face-toface meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, which stretched more than two hours, and also his first post-election meeting with Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto.
There were other signs that Trump enjoyed the visit. At a dinner and reception for world leaders and their spouses Friday night, Trump was among the last to leave. At an event Saturday morning to announce an initiative to fund female entrepreneurship, Trump called Merkel “incredible,” Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau “spectacular,” and declared that World Bank President Jim Yong Kim “would be a great appointment.” When the summit ended, the president and his aides flew back to the United States.