Copy-Trump criticizes Justin Trudeau, says US won’t endorse G7 communique

The president went into the meeting under intense pressure from foreign leaders after he slapped high tariffs on steel and aluminum imports, citing US national security needs.

UK Prime Minister Theresa May stood with Trudeau on the issue of trade.

Just hours ago, President Donald Trump was tweeting about the “great meetings and relationships with the six Country Leaders”.

He is not expected to stay till the end of the summit.

During the meeting with leaders Trump also aired grievances about trade, using charts to discuss the US’s trade deficit with various G7 members.

“This G7 does not put an end to all our disagreements, but in a context of tension it did allow us to preserve unity wherever that was possible”, he said.

Trump earlier called on the G7 leaders to reinstate Russian Federation as a member.

Trudeau managed to salvage support from some G7 countries for a charter to reduce plastic pollution in the oceans, an investment in education for women and girls, and a reaffirmation of the Paris climate accord, he said Saturday.

“So you go tariff-free, you go subsidy-free … now I did suggest and I guess they are going to go back to the drawing board and check it out”, he said.

“For us, it was important to have a commitment to rules-based trade”, Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel said, before Trump’s comments.

The U.S. president is lashing out on several fronts.

Trudeau said Canada wasn’t backing down.

But Trump did not totally change course, adding that the current tariffs were necessary as a reciprocal action in response to various barriers erected by other nations.

“They didn’t tell you that, did they?”

On Canada, he is repeating his criticism of Canadian dairy but says he wants to make a deal on NAFTA, with two different types of sunset clauses – a stumbling block for Canada in the past. “The President of the United States thinks that the U.S. has been treated in an unfair way by Europe and by others, and the others think that this is not the case”, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker told a press conference in La Malbaie.

During the summit, Trump was accused of seeking to undermine the “rules-based” worldwide order but the final statement began by stressing “the crucial role of a rules-based global trading system” as well as a commitment to “continue to fight protectionism”.

Trudeau addressed the president’s Twitter blasts while visiting Quebec’s Saguenay region on Thursday.

French President Emmanuel Macron responded in a “courteous but very firm tone” to present the European side of the story, and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe chimed in as well, the official said.

A senior United Kingdom government source said it stood by the commitments made in the communiqué., while a European Union official at the summit said it would “stick to the commitments made by all participants”.

Sticking points also remain in the North American Free Trade Agreement (Nafta) renegotiations between Canada, the United States and Mexico, despite it being a key topic during the bilateral meeting between Mr Trump and Canadian PM Justin Trudeau.

Trudeau again denounced Trump’s decision to invoke national security concerns to impose tariffs on aluminum and steel as “insulting” to the Canadian war veterans who had fought alongside United States allies.

The UK is thought to have concerns about the European Commission’s proposed package of 2.8 billion euro (£2.46 billion) of tariffs on U.S. goods.

Trudeau has worked hard to find common ground with the unpredictable president, but the personal bond he has tried to forge has been strained. Canada has proposed levies on a range of USA goods next month and the European Union has pledged its own retaliatory measures.

Trump arrived 17 minutes after the planned 8:00am start time and after Trudeau’s opening remarks.

At a gathering of governors of all the states at the White House, Trump said: “Now, the prime minister, who I think is a fantastic man, called me the other day and said we are lowering it to 50%”.