Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Allies eye rare rebuke for U.S. as G-7 meets
QUEBEC CITY — French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday threatened to join with other world leaders to issue a rare rebuke of the United States at a global summit here this weekend, drawing an immediate and sharp reply from President Donald Trump.
The summit will put Trump face to face with leaders he has antagonized on a variety of issues, including the environment and the U.S. withdrawal last month from the international nuclear accord with Iran.
But the Friday and Saturday meeting of the Group of Seven, which will bring together many of the world’s leading economies in a picturesque Canadian mountain town, has crystallized into a showdown over trade after Trump’s recent insistence on new barriers that the other nations see as petty and insulting. Most of the other countries represented have a trade beef with Trump that is unlikely to be resolved at the summit — and for each, the standoff is one more sign that the United States is pulling back from traditional global leadership roles.
Macron threatened to exclude the United States from the joint statement issued every year at the end of the G-7 summit, part of an international pushback against Trump efforts to change trade rules.
“The American President may not mind being isolated, but neither do we mind signing a 6 country agreement if need be,” Macron wrote on Twitter. “Because these 6 countries represent values, they represent an economic market which has the weight of history behind it and which is now a true international force.”
Trump responded by accusing Macron and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of hurting the United States with unfair trade practices.
“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 wrote.
The joint statements are often ceremonial and don’t carry the weight of international law, but they do establish a measure of principles that each nation shares.
Trump and his senior advisers have already discussed the idea of refusing to sign a joint statement, known as a communique. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin declined to sign a joint G-7 statement last week during a meeting with other finance ministers, in a possible prelude of what was to come.
Trump has spent much of this year engaged in a series of escalating trade wars with a number of U.S. allies, including Canada, Mexico and members of the European Union such as France. Last month he announced he was imposing tariffs on steel and aluminum imports from these countries, infuriating numerous foreign leaders who have pledged to confront him during the G-7.
Leaders in Europe, Canada and Mexico have vowed to retaliate against these tariffs with economic penalties against U.S. exports, but so far Trump has been unmoved. His advisers have said he is trying to use the threat of tariffs as leverage to force other countries to lower barriers in a way that would allow more U.S. imports. But rhetoric on all sides has only become more heated, and Macron took it to another level in his Twitter post on Thursday.
In a sign that Trump is looking to stoke divisions, White House officials are discussing ways to impose additional economic penalties against Canada — the host nation for the summit — in retaliation for Ottawa’s threat to levy tariffs on roughly $13 billion in U.S.made products. Among Canada’s targets: orange juice, soy sauce, sleeping bags and inflatable boats.
But there are divergent views within the White House over how to treat Canada, with Mnuchin urging both sides to ease tensions, two people close to the discussions said.
One world leader outside of the Group of Seven appeared to be enjoying an “I told you so” moment Thursday.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said during his nationally broadcast annual call-in show that after having long ignored his warnings about the dangers of a world dominated by the United States, European leaders are now finally getting their comeuppance for showing excessive deference to Washington — and getting a taste of the way the United States had long treated Russia.
Putin said: “Our partners probably thought that these counterproductive policies would never affect them . . . . No one wanted to listen, and no one wanted to do anything to stop these tendencies. Here we are.”