Blows up G7 agenda

Trump blows up G7 agenda

US president’s ‘America First’ stance, not for first time, disrupts international diplomatic norms.

By TOM MCTAGUE, DAVID M. HERSZENHORN AND ANDREW RESTUCCIA

With days to go before leaders of the world’s seven largest advanced economies meet in Canada, organizers have a problem — Donald Trump is making it hard to agree on anything.

The annual gathering of the so-called G7 countries is scheduled for June 8 in Quebec, but there remains unprecedented division over the agenda and what joint statements might be issued out of the summit, according to senior officials in Europe and the United States.

And the disruptive force is Trump. From trade rules to climate change, to defense spending and the Iran nuclear deal, the U.S. president has torn up the global consensus that existed under his predecessor, Barack Obama, leaving diplomats scrambling to paper over the cracks in the Western alliance and find any common ground on which to build the event. Failure to come together would break with years of tradition at the G7 summit, which has historically served as an annual affirmation that the biggest Western powers are largely aligned.

“The Canadians have no idea what to do,” one adviser to a G7 leader said on condition of anonymity. A second aide — a diplomat for a different G7 leader who has been working on the agenda for months — said they have never been this close to a summit without having general agreement on what leaders would say coming out of it.

A third official working for another administration involved in the summit said the talks have been “disconnected and unfocused.”

“At the moment there’s nothing. It’s just about being nice to women, which is fine, but is that it?” — A senior aide

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had initially wanted to use the June summit to promote issues central to his administration’s agenda, such as climate change, women’s empowerment, peace, economic growth for all and jobs for the future. The liberal leader said the G7 leaders had “a responsibility to ensure that all citizens benefit from our global economy.”

However, these goals, backed with various degrees of enthusiasm by the other leaders, clashed with Trump’s protectionist “America First” agenda, rupturing the usually consensual build-up to such events, according to senior officials across the G7.

By April 26, Trudeau had narrowed his focus to gender equality as the “top priority” of Canada’s G7 presidency.

“Women’s empowerment is a key driver of economic growth that works for everyone,” he said. “All of us benefit when women can participate freely, fully, and equally in our economies and society, and supporting and empowering women and girls must be at the heart of the decisions we make.”

It’s a goal the White House has gone to great lengths to say it supports. But critics accuse the Trump administration of pursuing policies that harm women — pointing to its actions on reproductive health and equal pay. And the president himself has faced a series of allegations from numerous women of unwanted sexual contact. Trump has strongly denied the accusations.

As of last week, there was no agreement on whether there would even be a final communiqué signed by all leaders — as is tradition — or whether Trudeau would simply issue a statement at the end of the summit instead, one official for a G7 country said. A draft communiqué was dropped because it included elements that weren’t signed off by diplomats.

“At the moment there’s nothing,” one senior aide familiar with the discussions of the agenda said. “It’s just about being nice to women, which is fine, but is that it?”

A spokeswoman for Trudeau said that despite any differences, the G7 still shared a central common goal and the summit would focus on it.

“The seven most advanced economies are facing the same challenge: How do we create growth that benefits everyone, including the middle class and people working hard to join it,” spokeswoman Chantal Gagnon said. “The G7 leaders have all been elected, one way or another, on a commitment to make the economy work for everyone, not just for the few, not just for the wealthy.”

Europe gets Trumped again

While diplomats have been working on the agenda for months, real pessimism began to sink in after a meeting of officials in Quebec in April, according to one senior European official.

Trump’s decision to pull out of the Iran nuclear deal earlier this month and his announcement last week that the White House  is considering punitive new tariffs on the imports of foreign-made cars, angered many in Europe and further strained discussions about the G7 agenda.

In Berlin, officials are worried Trump will use the G7 to publicly take Germany to task over its military spending. The U.S. president raised the issue when Angela Merkel visited the White House last month. While Germany has agreed to spend more, its plans still fall well short of the 2 percent of GDP threshold Trump is demanding.

U.S. officials privately admit the G7 is far apart on a lot of issues going into the summit and there’s considerable uncertainty about what the meetings could produce.

Despite the divisions, aides in two leading G7 countries said it is “way too early” to rule out an agreement on a final joint statement.

There remains hope that leaders can find common ground, particularly on national security issues, one official for a major G7 state said.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro shows the document issued by the National Electoral Council (CNE) that proclaims him as reelected president for the term 2019-2025 | Federico Parra/AFP via Getty Images

Notably, U.S. officials have begun using the phrase “environmental resilience” in place of “climate change,” which could provide cover for a joint statement agreed by all.

The division on display in Canada echoes the trouble diplomats faced in the run-up to last year’s G7 in Italy, when officials only just salvaged the summit in Taormina, Sicily.

While a final communiqué was agreed, it could not hide the divisions around the table, particularly over climate change. At the time, Trump was considering whether to pull the U.S. out of the Paris climate accord, a global pact to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and offset worldwide temperature rises.

Although the White House delayed its final decision to withdraw from the Paris accord until after the summit, the final G7 statement laid out the division in black and white.

“The United States of America is in the process of reviewing its policies on climate change and on the Paris Agreement and thus is not in a position to join the consensus on these topics,” the statement read.

Trump also agreed to a version of the G7’s traditional anti-protectionist language on trade, but only with major caveats criticizing “unfair trade practices” in the world, which means free trade is not working for everyone.

One issue the G7 countries have found common ground on this year is Venezuela. Last week the G7 released a statement “rejecting the electoral process” leading to the reelection of President Nicolás Maduro.

“By failing to meet accepted international standards and not securing the basic guarantees for an inclusive, fair and democratic process, this election and its outcome lack legitimacy and credibility,” the statement said. “We therefore denounce the Venezuelan presidential election, and its result, as it is not representative of the democratic will of the citizens of Venezuela.”

But it is unclear whether this could form part of a final statement after the summit.