President Trump: US WILL NOT Endorse Final G7 Communique

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