Trump sows seeds of wider trade conflict ahead of historic talks
The summit between the US president and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un may have boosted peace hopes, but a White House spat with Canadian PM Justin Trudeau and G7 members threatens to turn ugly
Tuesday’s summit between the American and North Korean leaders in Singapore will not be the only reason this week will be remembered for events that may shape the world for better or worse. En route to a meeting with Kim Jong-un to try to reduce the risk of a nuclear holocaust, US President Donald Trump lobbed another bomb into the multilateral trading system that underpins global peace and stability.
A world accustomed to the United States and Canada being best friends remains bewildered by an insulting personal attack by Trump on Canada’s young prime minister, Justin Trudeau.
It shattered the facade of consensus in a joint communique following a quarrelsome G7 summit of rich nations in Quebec. After having left early to prepare for the Kim summit, Trump launched a Twitter broadside from aboard Air Force One.
He took issue with comments made at a news conference by Trudeau, who confirmed retaliatory measures for US tariffs on steel and aluminium imports based on “insulting” national security grounds.
Describing Trudeau as “meek and mild” and “very dishonest and weak”, Trump instructed officials not to endorse the communique and threatened tariffs on automobiles in response to “massive tariffs on our US farmers, workers and companies”. Two Trump aides excoriated Trudeau in the same vein.
