Courtesy of Mish.
The G20 watered down free trade rhetoric but Italy wants to try again.
Italy will host the next G7 meeting, and Italy’s Prime Minister calls for G7 to Challenge Donald Trump.
Italy has called on G7 countries to reject protectionism at their summit in Sicily in May, setting up a clash with Donald Trump just days after his administration’s trade stance caused conflict at a G20 meeting in Germany.
The US forced a watering down of the language on trade after the G20 finance ministers’ meeting in Baden-Baden, changing its traditional call to “resist all forms of protectionism” to the need to “strengthen the contribution of trade to our economies”.
But on Tuesday night, Paolo Gentiloni, Italian prime minister, said the G7 group of leading economies should be steadfast and unambiguous in its support for an open global economy, making it a priority for the summit.
Mr. Gentiloni’s comments amount to a challenge to Washington, which has performed a sharp U-turn on trade policy since Mr. Trump took office as president.
Aside from last week’s tussle in Germany, the US has over the past two months pulled out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, questioned the World Trade Organisation’s dispute settlement mechanism and vowed to change the North American Free Trade Agreement with Canada and Mexico.
As host of the G7 summit, Mr. Gentiloni is in a position to craft the agenda but other G7 leaders — who have been troubled by the US’s new stance on trade — appeared to agree that it was worth trying to force the issue when they meet Mr. Trump in Sicily.
G7 Statements are Irrelevant
Japan’s prime minister Shinzo Abe made this statement in Rome: “In a contest in which protectionist and isolationist tendencies are growing, the G7’s role is more important than ever.”
What a hoot. G7 statements are meaningless.
For decades the G7, G20, GWhatevers, have all agreed to do something about agricultural tariffs. At the end of every summit, the results have been the same, zero progress.
Obama’s Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement was seven years in the making but Hillary, Trump, and Bernie Sanders were all against it. TPP is officially dead.
It Only Takes One
