Tit for Tat, G7 countries would soon retaliate to let Trump suffer same election pressure

World
Europe

By CGTN’s The Heat

For the first time since the US President Donald Trump unilaterally imposed steel and aluminum tariffs on world countries with few exceptions, major leaders gathered in Charlevoix, Canada on Friday for the 44th Group of Seven meeting.

Despite both the earnest persuasion and open criticism from these leaders, especially from Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and French President Emmanuel Macron, Trump did not concede.

He fired on Twitter on Saturday after he left for the historic meeting with DPRK leader Kim Jong Un in Singapore, calling Trudeau “very dishonest and weak” about Trudeau’s announcement that all G7 countries agreed on a joint closing statement. Trump also emphasized on Twitter that he is pulling out of the G7 joint statement.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel speaks to US President Donald Trump during the second day of the G7 meeting in Charlevoix city of La Malbaie, Quebec, Canada, June 9, 2018. /VCG Photo.

In a previewing conversation with CGTN on Friday, John Kirton, the director of the G7 Research Group, said that there was no need to worry about any division of G7 despite the rising anger towards Trump that he is not compromising on the tariffs.

He explained that people should expect that an instant solution was not realistic as Trump personally did not understand well the ultimate effect of tariffs. And at the same time, Trump wasn’t paying too much attention to the trade disputes, because the Kim-Trump Summit preoccupied him.

“As soon as they sat down face to face and it’s all been sweetness and smiles,” he said, “it’s what they are talking about right now when they are alone together for their dinner, focusing on peace and security with DPRK front and center there.”

Leaders of the G7 participate in a working session of the G7 summit in La Malbaie, Quebec, Canada, June 8, 2018. /VCG Photo.

While other experts agreed that the summit with Kim is in no doubt the “uppermost” thing on Trump’s agenda, the divergence among all these seven countries seen at the meeting is real and can’t be attributed to that.

Brian Becker, the executive director of the ANSWER coalition, an umbrella group of anti-war and anti-racism organizations, argued that G7 is outdated itself, while what Trump has done is apparently breaking down the organization.

“It’s a reflection of the fact that old post-World War Two world order, like all world orders, does eventually fray, does eventually come apart,” he said. “We see Donald Trump being the catalyst for it, which in some ways is a great irony in history but in fact, that’s what we are witnessing.”

US President Donald Trump arrives as Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund Christine Lagarde looks up while they attend a G7 and Gender Equality Advisory Council meeting as part of a G7 summit in the Charlevoix city of La Malbaie, Quebec, Canada, June 9, 2018. /VCG Photo.

From a broader perspective, he added, that the 10-year economic expansion since 2008 is soon going to peak according to the business cycle economy’s regular pattern of growth and retraction. At that time, the nationalism and protectionism tactic led by the US will even be worse among these countries.

Asked by the CGTN if Russia would come back to the group as Trump had proposed to other countries, Becker denied the possibility.

Remi Piet, a research fellow with the University of Miami’s European Union Center, further explained that this is not a sign of the US trying to bring back Russia and revive the new G8, but instead, Trump’s attempt to get Italy, who is open to this suggestion, on the US side against other members in the group.

01:16

Besides, he also expected retaliatory actions to take place from other G7 countries after all of their patience wore out and the domestic pressure accumulate as they approach new rounds of elections.

“All those governmental leaders have to answer to their population also,” Piet said, “and their populations are now very antagonistic to the US because they understand that Donald Trump is not playing a fair game of finding a real conservative negotiation of decreasing tariffs.”

Piet said that to fight back; the European Union will also give the same burden to Trump by targeting at the swing states using tariffs as the 2018 midterm election coming.

“There’s going to be a real out war on trade issues with the European Union actually raising tariffs on the series of products from peanut butter to Motorcycle, to Bourbon and Whiskey, which are produced in very politically important states in the US for the upcoming elections,” he said.

The Heat with Anand Naidoo is a 30-minute political talk show on CGTN. It airs weekdays at 7:00 a.m. BJT and 7:00 p.m. Eastern in the United States.