Before the G7, Trump attacks Trudeau and Macron
Bromance is over. After the kisses and pats on the shoulder in Paris and Washington, tempers have been flaring between Emmanuel Macron and Donald Trump. Hours before the presidents of seven nations will meet at the G-7 Summit in Charlevoix, Canada, Donald Trump confronted by Twitter with his French counterpart and the Prime Minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau, unleashing a wave of messages regarding the trade war with its country and the European Union. However, along with Justin Trudeau, the French president warned Trump that he would not be intimidated by his threats of trade war. And he threatened to isolate the United States at the G7 opening Friday, which earned him a scathing tweet of the US president.
Macron said this week that it is better not to talk about private conversations with Trump because it would be tantamount to telling people what sausages are made of, an information that for the sake of the product is better not to share. But the US president's policy is defined precisely by showing disagreements with crudeness. The more, the better. Washington has launched a battle to reduce its trade deficit with a warlike language and a style that does not distinguish between rival powers (such as China) and allies (Canada or the European Union).
The tension escalated this Thursday afternoon, just hours before the appointment began, first between Trump and Macron, who have broken that romance that seemed to unite them recently. “The US president may not mind being isolated, but we do not mind signing a 6-country agreement if necessary. As these 6 countries represent values, they represent an economic market that has the weight of history and that is now a true international force." Macron said, to conclude that the market of the rest of the G7 members combined "is much greater" than that of the United States, even if it is the world's leading power. The tone is very far from the one that characterized their relationship until recently, strikingly warm.
Trump also replied via Twitter: "Please tell Prime Minister Trudeau and President Macron that they are taxing the United States with massive tariffs and non-monetary obstacles. The EU's trade surplus with the United States is 151,000 million dollars and Canada keeps our farmers and others out, I really want to see you tomorrow!" he wrote. Then he also stirred up with the Canadian Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau: "He gets so outraged, exposing the relationship of the US and Canada for years and all kinds of things ... but does not mention the fact that they tax us even 300% in dairy and harm our winners. They kill our agriculture!” Trudeau and Macron met on the eve of the G7 and defended multilateralism against the isolationist turn of the US, which none has been able to reverse. The leaders of the United States, Canada, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, Italy and Japan will meet this Friday and Saturday to address a diverse agenda (gender, security and employment), but the tariff escalation marks everything. US partners, who have pushed other charges in retaliation, especially offend them that the White House has opted for the national security argument, especially given that they are allies with whom they routinely share intelligence information.
The US president will hold bilateral meetings with Macron and Trudeau in the framework of this summit, but it seems unlikely that the approach that other meetings have not achieved such as the one he maintained with the French president go to achieve these talks apart in Charlevoix, the idyllic region where leaders meet protected from any protest. It was the French Minister of Economy and Finance, Bruno Le Maire, who said a few days ago that the G-7 was beginning to be more of a G-6 +1. But it remains to be seen that this is the case, that in effect the block of six acts as such or, in the midst of the troubled river, also the discrepancies arise around the Trump challenge. Within the EU, last week, with the application of tariffs, some differences were already glimpsed: Germany, the European club country most affected as exporter of steel and aluminum to the US, was open to concessions to Washington, while others, like France, are reluctant to enter the tough bargaining game of the New York mogul. From the summit of the kisses, that between Trump and Macron in Washington, has gone to the summit of the sausages.