U. S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin faced so much criticism from his Group of Seven counterparts this week over new trade levies that Japanese Finance Minister Taro Aso said he almost ‘felt sorry’ for the U. S. finance chief.
U. S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin faced so much criticism from his Group of Seven counterparts this week over new trade levies that Japanese Finance Minister Taro Aso said he almost ‘felt sorry’ for the U. S. finance chief.
“He’s not directly in charge of the metal tariffs, so in that sense it was very tough for him,” Aso told reporters after the second day of G-7 finance minister meetings in Whistler, British Columbia. “I felt sorry for him, but I guess it’s not the sort of issue I should sympathize with.”
The G-7 officials expressed frustration over how the U. S. is alienating its historical trading partners with new tariffs on steel. They cautioned the Americans are losing sight of the real challenges faced by the global economy, even as they held out hope of a change of heart.
“We will be divided — it will not be a G-7, it will be a G-6 plus one,” French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said in a Bloomberg Television interview at the meeting in a ski resort near Vancouver. “It is dangerous for growth, dangerous for the economic development of the world, and dangerous for our jobs in the EU.”
The trade disputes are hijacking a summit that was initially seen as an opportunity to tout the successes of the global economic upswing, and is severely testing the resiliency of economic ties among Western nations. Canada and the European Union have said they will take immediate steps to retaliate after the Trump administration imposed steel and aluminum duties on national security grounds. High Drama
Frictions in Whistler this weekend could foreshadow even more high-drama at a G-7 leaders’ summit next week in Quebec that Trump will attend.
“We won’t negotiate under pressure. We will never accept to negotiate under pressure,” said Le Maire, adding that the EU should be granted an exemption to the metal tariffs.
The security designation used by Trump to justify the tariffs has been particularly grating to the Europeans and Canadians.
