Trump Goes After Canadian, European Trade Policies Before G-7; Other Leaders Emphasize Consensus on Trade's Benefits
President Donald Trump blasted allies' trade practices just before heading to the G-7 summit in Canada in a tweet storm that included repeated swipes at Canadian dairy practices, European tariffs and trade deficits. "Please tell Prime Minister Trudeau and President Macron that they are charging the U.S. massive tariffs and create non-monetary barriers," he said in one tweet, before closing with, "Look forward to seeing them tomorrow."
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He also wrote, "Prime Minister Trudeau is being so indignant, bringing up the relationship that the U.S. and Canada had over the many years and all sorts of other things...but he doesn’t bring up the fact that they charge us up to 300% on dairy -- hurting our Farmers, killing our Agriculture!" He said if he's unable to straighten out unfair trade deals with G-7 countries, "we come out even better!"
David Salmonsen, senior director of congressional relations at the American Farm Bureau Federation, said he wishes agriculture wouldn't show up in Trump's tweets as often as it has this week. "Sure we’d like to lower those tariffs on dairy in Canada, we run at that every chance we get," he said June 8, but NAFTA has been terrific for farm exports. "Let’s keep a good thing going," he said.
Meanwhile, also on June 7, French President Emmanuel Macron was tweeting: "We Allies cannot wage a trade war on each other. Our soldiers are fighting side by side to defend our values," and "Our values and interests are built through multilateralism, including American interests. Let us look at history: isolationism is bad for the American people. I think President Trump knows that."
He also struck a sharper tone in saying that the American president may not mind being isolated, but the other G-7 countries are also willing to sign a statement on their shared economic values without him. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, the host of the meeting, avoided engaging Trump directly but tweeted repeatedly about the benefits Canada will receive from signing free trade agreements with Europe and the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which includes G-7 member Japan.
At the summit on June 8, Macron tweeted a clip of a video of him meeting with Trump with the caption, "Pursuing the conversation. Engaging, keeping the dialogue alive, now & ever. Sharing, reaching out, always, to promote the interests of the French people, and all those who believe in a world we can build together."