President
Donald Trump said Saturday the U.S. wouldn’t endorse the final communiqué of
the Group of Seven industrial nations summit and threatened to impose auto
tariffs in a statement on Twitter that included insults hurled at the Canadian
prime minister.
Mr.
Trump’s unprecedented refusal threw the final hours of the summit, which had
ended on a positive note with the joint communiqué, into disarray, raising the
specter of an escalating trade battle between allies after what appeared to be
a cooling of tensions.
Hours
after leaving the G-7 conference in Quebec to fly to Singapore for a meeting with North Korean leader Kim
Jong Un, Mr. Trump tweeted that Canadian
leader Justin Trudeau had acted “meek” in meetings, then talked tough in a news
conference later in the day. His declaration the U.S. wouldn’t endorse the
communiqué came just hours after the White House told reporters aboard Air
Force One that Mr. Trump had joined it.
“Based
on Justin’s false statements at his news conference, and the fact that Canada
is charging massive Tariffs to our U.S. farmers, workers and companies, I have
instructed our U.S. Reps not to endorse the Communique as we look at Tariffs on
automobiles flooding the U.S. Market,” Mr. Trump wrote.
“PM
Justin Trudeau of Canada acted so meek and mild during our G-7 meetings only to
give a news conference after I left,” he wrote. “Very dishonest and weak.”
A
spokeswoman for Mr. Trudeau said Saturday night that Canada is focused on what
was accomplished at the summit. She said Mr. Trudeau’s comments represented
“nothing he hasn’t said before—both in public and in private conversations with
the President.”
People from the
European delegation, which had pressed the U.S. to agree to language on
rules-based trade, reacted with disbelief to Mr. Trump’s tweets, one official
said.
“We stick to the
communiqué as agreed by all participants,” an EU official said after the news
of Mr. Trump’s tweet.
John Kirton, the
head of G-7 research group at the University of Toronto, said this marks the
first time in G-7 history that there was no unanimity on a communiqué.
Mr. Trump didn’t
specify any elements of the communiqué he objected to, but his Twitter remarks
were a striking turnaround and an example of his penchant for lobbing attacks
from afar after amicable interactions in person.
Hours earlier,
while Air Force One was in the air to Singapore, an administration official
sent a statement to reporters aboard the plane saying that “President Trump has
joined the Charlevoix G7 Summit Communique.” Via WSJ More Here
