The Trump Commercial War
Written by Alfonso Elizondo
On June 7 and 8 the 44th Summit of the G-7 will be held in a remote town in Quebec called Charlevoix, where it is expected that a trade war will break out, unleashed by the United States imposing – outside the world order established since the end of World War II – steel and aluminium tariffs on all its allies.
Almost two months ago Canada, in its capacity as president of the G-7, set out the five main items on the official agenda, namely, new technologies, gender equality, climate change, growth that benefits all, and the building of a more peaceful and secure world.
The Summit is expected to be attended by the heads of state of Canada, the US, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK and representatives of the European Union, who expect the focus of the meeting to be the protectionist and isolationist actions that the United States will present as the basis of this meeting of the six most powerful nations in the world.
Canadian Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, considers it an insult to impose tariffs of 25% on steel and 10% on aluminium, and that Trump will only now be visiting Canada a year and a half after he was elected, whereas in the immediate past that was the first thing done by the president-elect.
This weekend, the finance ministers of the G-7 gave a preview of what they expect for next Friday and Saturday and there were also issues discussed between Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors in Whistler, British Columbia, who showed that significant goals can be achieved through cooperation and collaboration. They noted, however, that these actions by Trump undermined the confidence of businessmen and investors of the entire G-7.
In addition, at the meeting of finance ministers of the G-7, the White House announced that it would not renew the exemption of Canada, Mexico and the European Union from the tariffs on steel and aluminium that have been in effect since June 1.
Meanwhile, Professor John Kirton, director of the G-7 Research Group at the University of Toronto said it is unlikely that the G-7 will expel the United States, since the group has never removed a member.’
Kirton also said that the meeting in Charlevoix will be a ‘synergistic success’ on a wide range of issues anyway, although the French Minister, Bruno Le Maire declared that the G-7 will show that the United States is only against everyone, and particularly against its allies.
French Economy Minister, Le Maire, said Trump could reduce or eliminate metal tariffs as part of a trade commitment, as happened last year at the G-7 in Italy.
Finally, Kirton said that despite Trump’s unpredictability, he has many very predictable positions, such as his hatred and fear of terrorism, his unconditional support for the empowerment of women, for the employment of his own workers and his great capacity to lie.
So Trump only has to behave seriously at the G-7 Summit and try to stop being the center of attention at the event for once in his life.
Addendum: It is obvious that Trump does not care about all these G-7 Summit issues because all he wants is to be able to get re-elected as President and continue having all the cushy jobs he gets illegally with that position. Nothing’s set about what will happen in the next few months, but there is no doubt that Trump will go down in history as the most stupid President in the history of the United States and he will be blamed for the debacle of the great American empire.