Trump presses G-7 leaders to reduce trade barriers
‘We’re like the piggy bank that everybody’s robbing,’ he insists
WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump told global leaders gathered at the Group of Seven summit in Quebec that they must reduce trade barriers and floated the idea of discarding tariffs completely if other countries agreed to a more pure form of open trade.
Trump threatened to stop trading with other nations if they decline to lower barriers he has repeatedly described as unfair, and he warned allies against taking retaliatory measures against steep metal tariffs that he imposed last month.
“We’re like the piggy bank that everybody’s robbing,” Trump said. “And that ends.”
Ending trade with other nations under the current system, Trump said, would be “a very profitable answer if I have to do it.”
The remarks, following a two-day meeting in Canada with the world’s largest industrialized economies, were among the most strident Trump has used to describe what he sees as an outof-whack global trade system that he says harms U.S. industries.
Speaking to reporters before leaving for his meeting in Singapore with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, Trump tried to downplay any notion that the meeting in Canada was contentious.
He repeatedly described his relationship with the other leaders as “a 10” and said he did not blame the other countries for their positions on trade.
Trump drew international criticism last month for leveling a 25 percent tariff on steel and a 10 percent duty on aluminum, measures the president says are necessary for national security. The president has also said he is considering a tariff on imported cars.
The president said the ideal situation would be a completely free trade system with the other G-7 nations — Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and Canada. Under such an arrangement, he said, the U.S. would agree to remove all tariffs and barriers if the other countries did as well.
Trump did not indicate that he had received any concessions in his negotiations on trade at the summit. Several other leaders have threatened retaliatory tariffs.
“If they retaliate,” Trump said, “they’re making a mistake.”
Other leaders at the summit didn’t address Trump’s remarks directly, but German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron both posted photos that showed an alternative perspective — though Macron’s tweet had a hopeful tone.
Trump departed the gathering after showing up late for a breakfast on gender equity and he missed sessions on climate change, clean energy and ocean protection. He left before any resolution was announced on the traditional joint statement from the seven industrialized nations in the group.