Friday, June 1, 2018

The G7 Ministerial Meeting in Whistler Shifts to Focus on Trump's "Absurd" Tariffs; Mnuchin Snubs Traditional Photo-Op



Prof. Murray Sabrin is vacationing in Whistler British Columbia and has happened upon a meeting of the G7.

He writes:
We are in Whistler BC where the G 7 is holding a meeting .  This is a photo of the Fairmont Hotel parking lot containing the security vehicles.  We passed by the hotel this morning on a walk around the village.



The Financial Post reports:
The Trump administration’s “absurd” tariffs on steel and aluminum sent protectionism rocketing to the top of Bill Morneau’s G7 agenda Thursday as he and his fellow finance ministers from the exclusive club of rich countries braced for the inevitable economic impact.

With his pre-selected program shoved aside, Morneau made it clear the discussions in British Columbia’s Coast Mountains will have little choice but to focus on U.S. President Donald Trump’s widely denounced trade offensive against Canada and other G7 allies.

The American move — which prompted retaliatory measures from Canada and others — threatens to drive a powerful wedge into the G7, and could fracture the long-standing multilateral relationship into something observers describe as a “G6 plus one,” with the U.S. as the outlier.

This week’s three-day pre-G7 gathering, which got underway Thursday, will “absolutely” now be focused on trade, thanks to a U.S. tactic that’s widely seen as the death knell for jobs on both sides of the Canada-U.S. border.

“We think it’s absurd that Canada is considered in any way a security risk, so that will be very clearly stated by me,” Morneau said of the U.S. decision to justify the tariffs on the basis of national security.

“I have every expectation that our other allies around the table will express the same sentiment.”... 
The Whistler meetings will also give Morneau and other G7 ministers an opportunity to hold face-to-face discussions with U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, with whom Morneau met for a bilateral meeting Thursday.

On his way to the meeting room, Mnuchin was asked by a reporter what he’s telling his G7 allies about the tariffs. He responded by saying: “Nice to see you, how are you?”

Later Thursday, Mnuchin didn’t join Morneau and most of their G7 counterparts for a photo-op before the opening dinner. Ministers and central bankers walked together down a street from their hotel behind a procession of Indigenous drummers to a nearby lodge, but Mnuchin was nowhere to be seen during their brief stroll.

-RW  

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