Tag: G-7

US, Japan move closer to limited trade deal

NOTE:  Trump announced this as a deal at the G-7, but it appears there is no firm deal.

Trump, Abe outline possible deal that could open Japanese markets to $7 billion in U.S. goods

The United States and Japan have reached a tentative agreement that could give President Donald Trump a trade win for his farm constituency and could protect Japan against steep auto tariffs that the administration is threatening to impose on imported vehicles.

Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe outlined the agreement in principle on agriculture, industrial tariffs and digital trade Sunday during the G-7 summit in France. U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said the agreement, if finalized, would open Japanese markets to an additional $7 billion in U.S. products.

Abe said negotiators will continue to fine-tune the language. The two leaders said they hoped to sign the agreement in New York in late September when the U.N. General Assembly meets. There was no mention of whether Congress would have a role in approving the agreement.

View the complete August 26 article by Ellyn Ferguson on The Roll Call website here.

Trump insists trade talks have restarted with China, but details are elusive

Washington Post logoBIARRITZ, France — After several days of whiplash statements about China that brought new tariffs, olive branches, countermeasures, reversals and bravado, President Trump on Monday said trade negotiations are set to resume once more.

“We’ve gotten two calls and very, very good calls,” Trump told reporters at the Group of Seven summit. “Very productive calls. They mean business. They want to be able to make a deal.”

Trump later clarified that the calls had occurred as recently as Sunday evening. Other administration officials were more circumspect, and it wasn’t clear how substantive any interaction had been. “There were discussions that went back and forth, let’s leave it at that,” Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told reporters.

View the complete August 26 article by Damian Paletta and David J. Lynch on The Washington Post website here.

Trump’s G-7 achievements: No trade deal, no military deal, no climate deal — and ‘yes’ on helping himself

AlterNet logoAlmost from the moment he stepped into the White House, Donald Trump has been conducting trade negotiations with China. Unsuccessful trade negotiations with China. Trade negotiations with China that have gone so badly that they’ve disintegrated into a trade war in which Trump has slapped on an increasing series of tariffs in order to prove his personal theory—a theory held by no one else anywhere—that tariffs are a good thing and trade wars are beneficial. However, the Trump-shy stock market and recession-worried nation can just relax, because none of that was serious. Now, says Trump, now “serious negotiations can begin.” Well, not actually now. But “soon.”

As the AP reports, Trump claimed during a Monday interview at the G-7 that his team of trade negotiators had received a pair of “very good calls” from their Chinese counterparts over the weekend. Those calls, said Trump, indicated that the two sides finally understood each other and are “dealing on proper terms.” All this means that “we’re finally going to have a deal.”

Which is nice. Except … China says it’s BS. Minutes after Trump spoke, China’s Foreign Ministry spokesman joined other officials in saying that there were no calls, that they didn’t know what Trump was talking about, and that China was ready to “protect itself” and continue this trade war to it’s bitter, recessionary end.

View the complete August 26 article by Mark Sumner from Daily Kos on the AlterNet website here.

G-7 summit ends with little consensus amid Trump’s mixed messaging on the trade war

Washington Post logoBIARRITZ, France —  President Trump’s divergence on key international flash points, particularly trade, the climate and Russian provocation, upended a consortium of world leaders that was created four decades ago to address major crises.

On Monday, when leaders at the Group of Seven summit traveled home after the three-day meeting, their differences appeared to have sharpened, and many agreements seemed further out of reach. And in his concluding news conference, Trump appeared content with the way the meeting ended — without major breakthroughs.

All eyes were on the U.S. president, in part because of the burgeoning trade war between the White House and China. Trump said that he felt personal “unity” during talks, and that he was pressed to explain his strategy by several world leaders but wouldn’t back down.

View the complete August 26 article by Toluse Olorunnipa, Michael Birnbaum, Damian Paletta and Josh Dawsey on The Washington Post website here.

Trump sings the praises of his resort in Florida as possible G-7 host for 2020

Washington Post logoBIARRITZ, France —  President Trump said Monday that he was likely to hold next year’s Group of Seven summit at his resort in Doral, Fla., meaning he could personally profit from one of the world’s most prestigious gatherings of foreign leaders.

In a news conference, Trump said that his staff had scoured the country and determined that — of all America’s resorts and resort towns — Trump’s club was the best situated to host the international meeting.

“They went places all over the country, and they came back and said, ‘This is where we’d like to be,’ ” Trump said. “It’s not about me. It’s about getting the right location.”

View the complete August 26 article by Josh Dawsey and David A. Fahrenthold on The Washington Post website here.

Rule 1 at the G7 Meeting? Don’t Get You-Know-Who Mad

New York Times logoBIARRITZ, France — For a day, at least, everyone was on their best behavior when the cameras were on, eager to present a show of bonhomie after so many previous meetings ended in discord.

But behind the scenes at the annual gathering of some of the world’s leading powers, President Trump still found himself at odds with his counterparts on Sunday over issues like trade, climate change, North Korea, Russia and Iran.

Ever so gingerly, as if determined not to rouse the American’s well-known temper, the other Group of 7 leaders sought to nudge him toward their views on the pressing issues of the day, or at least register their differences — while making sure to wrap them in a French crepe of flattery, as they know he prefers.

View the complete August 25 article by Peter Baker on The New York Times website here.

WATCH: Larry Kudlow wilts under barrage of questions about Trump’s conflicting trade war comments

AlterNet logoLarry Kudlow, who appeared to have been drinking before his FOX News appearance last Sunday, probably wished he was drinking this Sunday after his stammering performance on CNN where he faced a barrage of questions from “State of the Union” fill-in host Brianna Keilar.

Speaking from France where he is attending the G7 conference with Donald Trump, Kudlow was put on the spot over the president’s comments where he seemed to express regret over launching a trade war with China.

According to the president’s economic adviser, Trump failed to hear a reporter’s question over whether he had any “second thoughts” about launching a trade war with China.

View the complete August 25 article by Tom Boggioni from Raw Story on the AlterNet website here.

Trump had a plan to ‘blow up’ the G7 and give the ‘middle finger’ to our allies: report

AlterNet logoPresident Donald Trump’s plan was to bully our G7 allies on a range of issues by touting the strong U.S. economy. As The Washington Post’s Greg Sargent wrote Friday morning, “Trump will proclaim his ‘America First’ agenda a smashing success, and throw that in the faces of our European allies.”

That plan will have to be changed now that his trade war with China just exploded.

China imposed tariffs of $75 billion of U.S. goods on Friday. Trump launched a tweetstorm causing the DOW to drop more than 600 points (at several times during the day more than 700 points.)

View the complete August 23 article by David Badash from the New Civil Rights Movements on the AlterNet website here.

Trump retaliates in trade war by escalating tariffs on Chinese imports and demanding companies cut ties with China

Washington Post logoPresident Trump demanded U.S. companies stop doing business with China and announced he would raise the rate of tariffs on Beijing Friday, capping one of the most extraordinary days in the long-running U.S.-China trade war.

By the end of the trading day, the Dow Jones industrial average had fallen 600 points, or nearly 2.4 percent; the business community had ratcheted up criticisms of the president; and world leaders descending on the Group of Seven summit in France were confronted with the prospect of a global slowdown, triggered by a trade war with no end in sight.

The combination of events nearly eclipsed a Twitter tirade in which Trump questioned whether the Federal Reserve Chair Jerome H. Powell was an “enemy” of the U.S.

View the complete August 23 article by Jeff Stein, Taylor Telford, Gerry Shih and Rachel Siegel on The Washington Post website here.

Trump Refuses to Sign G-7 Statement and Calls Trudeau ‘Weak’ Video

The following article by Michael D. Shear and Catherine Porter was posted on the New York Times website June 9, 2018:

At the meeting of the Group of 7 nations on Saturday, President Trump threatened to end trade with countries he says follow unfair trade practices and displayed confidence about the upcoming talks with North Korea.Published OnJune 9, 2018CreditImage by Doug Mills/The New York Times

QUEBEC CITY — President Trump upended two days of global economic diplomacy late Saturday, refusing to sign a joint statement with America’s allies, threatening to escalate his trade war on the country’s neighbors and deriding Canada’s prime minister as “very dishonest and weak.”

In a remarkable pair of acrimony-laced tweets from aboard Air Force One as he flew away from the Group of 7 summit toward a meeting with North Korea’s leader, Mr. Trump lashed out at Justin Trudeau. He accused the prime minister, who hosted the seven-nation gathering, of making false statements. Continue reading “Trump Refuses to Sign G-7 Statement and Calls Trudeau ‘Weak’ Video”