9th June, 2018
US President Donald Trump says he proposed the elimination of tariffs in talks at the G7 summit in Canada, as the major industrial nations struggled to resolve differences on trade.
Mr Trump said talks with fellow leaders were “extremely productive” despite tensions over his decision to impose tariffs on steel and aluminium imports, BBC reports.
US allies were furious over the move, raising fears of a global trade war.
Mr Trump left early for a landmark meeting with North Korea’s leader.
He is travelling to Singapore to meet with Kim Jong-un on Tuesday to try to persuade him to give up the country’s nuclear weapons.
G7 leaders are yet to comment on Trump’s free trade remarks, but the official Instagram account of German Chancellor Angela Merkel posted a photo of the leaders gathered in what appeared to be a tense meeting.
Briefing reporters before he left the town of La Malbaie, in Quebec province, Mr Trump denied that the G7 summit had been contentious.
“No tariffs, no barriers. That’s the way it should be. And no subsidies. I even said, ‘no tariffs’,” the US president said, describing his meetings with fellow Group of Seven leaders as positive “on the need to have fair and reciprocal trade”.
“The United States has been taken advantage of for decades and decades,” he continued, describing America as a “piggy bank that everyone keeps robbing”.
But he said he did not blame G7 leaders for the “unfair” trade deals – instead blaming his American predecessors.
Angered by the high steel and aluminium tariffs, Canada, Mexico and the EU have all said they are all planning retaliatory measures.
President Trump warned against such moves, calling it a “mistake” and said if it gets as far as a trade war, then the US would “win that war a thousand times out of a thousand”.
According to BBC, with divisions over trade laid bare, it still unclear whether a communique agreed by each G7 member will be released when the summit concludes later on Saturday.