QUEBEC (AFP) – The G7 summit ended in farce and a renewed threat of global trade war as US President Donald Trump abruptly rejected the text of a consensus statement and bitterly insulted the Canadian host.
Just minutes after a joint communique Saturday that had been approved by the leaders of the Group of Seven allies was published in Canada’s summit host city Quebec, Mr Trump launched a Twitter broadside from aboard Air Force One.
The US leader left the meeting early en route for Singapore and a historic nuclear summit with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un, only to take exception to comments made by Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at a news conference.
“Based on Justin’s false statements at his news conference, and the fact that Canada is charging massive Tariffs to our US farmers, workers and companies, I have instructed our US Reps not to endorse the Communique as we look at Tariffs on automobiles flooding the US Market!” Mr Trump tweeted.
“PM Justin Trudeau of Canada acted so meek and mild during our @G7 meetings only to give a news conference after I left saying that … he ‘will not be pushed around.’ Very dishonest & weak.”
Earlier, Mr Trudeau had told reporters that Mr Trump’s decision to invoke national security to justify US tariffs on steel and aluminum imports was “kind of insulting” to Canadian veterans who had stood by their US allies in conflicts dating back to World War I.
“Canadians are polite and reasonable but we will also not be pushed around,” he said.
Mr Trudeau said he had told Mr Trump “it would be with regret but it would be with absolute clarity and firmness that we move forward with retaliatory measures on July 1, applying equivalent tariffs to the ones that the Americans have unjustly applied to us.”
After Mr Trump’s angry tweets, Mr Trudeau’s office issued a brief response: “We are focused on everything we accomplished here at the G7 summit. The Prime Minister said nothing he hasn’t said before – both in public, and in private conversations with the President.”
The outburst against Mr Trudeau, and by association the other G7 members, is only the latest incident in which Mr Trump has clashed with America’s closest allies, even as he has had warm words for autocrats like Kim and Russia’s Vladimir Putin.
French President Emmanuel Macron’s office reacted Sunday by saying that “international cooperation cannot be dictated by fits of anger and throwaway remarks”.
Reneging on the commitments agreed in the communique showed “incoherence and inconsistency”, it said in a statement.
Shortly after Mr Trump tweeted, respected Republican Senator John McCain responded.
“To our allies: bipartisan majorities of Americans remain pro-free trade, pro-globalization & supportive of alliances based on 70 years of shared values. Americans stand with you, even if our president doesn’t,” he tweeted.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, in China on Sunday for a summit with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping, dismissed G7 calls for Moscow to stop what the group described as attempts to undermine democracy and support for the Syrian regime.
“I believe it’s necessary to stop this creative babbling and shift to concrete issues related to real cooperation,” Mr Putin told reporters.
The G7 also endorsed Britain’s accusation that Moscow was behind the poisoning attack in England on former double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter – but Mr Putin said they had “again” failed to provide evidence that Russia was behind the attack.
