Tweeting Saturday, Trump jabbed the Canadian prime minister, and a White House trade adviser mentioned a “special place in hell” for Justin Trudeau.
President Donald Trump rejected the joint statement signed off on by the six other world leaders who participated in the G7 summit in Charlevoix, Quebec, over the weekend, after taking issue with comments made by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at a news conference Saturday, following the multilateral gathering.
“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, ‘US tariffs were kind of insulting’ and he ‘will not be pushed around,’” Trump tweeted Saturday. “Very dishonest & weak. Our Tariffs are in response to his of 270% on dairy!”
During a press conference following the summit, Trudeau noted that Canada planned to move forward with tariffs on July 1, in retaliation against U.S. global tariffs of 25 percent on steel and 10 percent on aluminum.
“Canadians — we’re polite, we’re reasonable, but we also will not be pushed around,” Trudeau said.
According to a transcript of the conversation, the first words spoken by White House trade adviser Peter Navarro on Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace were: “Chris, there’s a special place in hell for any foreign leader that engages in bad faith diplomacy with President Donald J. Trump and then tries to stab him in the back on the way out the door. And that’s what bad-faith Justin Trudeau did with that stunt press conference.”
Trudeau originally had announced during the press conference that the joint statement would be signed by all G7 parties.
Navarro mentioned that Trump “was even willing to sign that socialist communique. And what Trudeau did … as soon as the plane took off from Canadian airspace, Trudeau stuck our president in the back. That will not stand.”
In the communique, trade was referenced most heavily in the fourth paragraph, and the trade language hewed to the general tone of previous G7 communiques.
“We acknowledge that free, fair and mutually beneficial trade and investment, while creating reciprocal benefits, are key engines for growth and job creation,” the communique says.
The statement goes on to say, “We underline the crucial role of a rules-based international trading system and to fight protectionism. We note the importance of bilateral, regional and plurilateral agreements being open, transparent, inclusive and WTO [World Trade Organization]-consistent, and commit to working to ensure they complement the multilateral trade agreements. We commit to modernize the WTO to make it more fair as soon as possible. We strive to reduce tariff barriers, non-tariff barriers and subsidies.
Trump rejects G7 joint statement on trade matters
