Global tax deal backed by 130 nations

Yahoo – AFP, Jürgen HECKER, July 1, 2021 

US digital giants are the main targets of the new tax

A total of 130 countries have agreed a global tax reform ensuring that multinationals pay their fair share wherever they operate, the OECD said on Thursday, but some EU states refused to sign up. 

The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development said in a statement that global companies, including US behemoths Google, Amazon, Facebook, and Apple would be taxed at a rate of at least 15 percent once the deal is implemented. 

The new tax regime will add some $150 billion to government coffers globally once it comes into force, which the OECD said it hoped would be in 2023. 

"The framework updates key elements of the century-old international tax system, which is no longer fit for purpose in a globalised and digitalised 21st century economy," the OECD said. 

The formal agreement follows an endorsement by the G7 group of wealthy nations last month, and negotiations now move to a meeting of the G20 group of developed and emerging economies on July 9-10 in Venice, Italy. 

US President Joe Biden said the latest deal "puts us in striking distance of full global agreement to halt the race to the bottom for corporate taxes." 

Germany, another backer of the tax reform, hailed it as a "colossal step towards tax justice", and France said it was "the most important tax agreement in a century". 

British finance minister Rishi Sunak, whose country holds the G7 presidency, said "the fact that 130 countries across the world, including all of the G20, are now on board, marks a further step in our mission to reform global tax". 

'In everyone's interest'

But EU low-tax countries Ireland and Hungary declined to sign up to the agreement reached in the OECD framework, the organisation said, highlighting lingering divisions on global taxation. 

Both countries are part of a group of EU nations also including Luxembourg and Poland that have relied on low tax rates to attract multinationals and build their economies. 

Ireland, the EU home to tech giants Facebook, Google and Apple, has a corporate tax rate of just 12.5 percent. 

Irish Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe has warned that the new rules could see Ireland lose 20 percent of its corporate revenue. 

On Thursday, Donohoe said Ireland still "broadly supports" the deal, but not the 15-percent tax floor. 

The tax plan got a much-needed boost from Joe Bidens's administration

"There is much to finalise before a comprehensive agreement is reached", he said, adding that Ireland would "constructively engage" in further discussions. 

Also expressing concerns is Switzerland -- known for its banking secrecy laws -- which said it would support the measures despite "major reservations" and that it hoped the interests of "small, innovative countries" be taken into account. 

An agreement for the implementation of the plan is planned for October. 

Nine of the 139 participants in the talks have so far not signed on to the agreement. 

But China, whose position was being closely watched as it offers tax incentives to key sectors, endorsed the agreement. 

"It is in everyone's interest that we reach a final agreement among all Inclusive Framework Members as scheduled later this year," said OECD Secretary General Mathias Cormann. 

"This package does not eliminate tax competition, as it should not, but it does set multilaterally agreed limitations on it," Cormann said, adding that "it also accommodates the various interests across the negotiating table, including those of small economies and developing jurisdictions". 

'More equitable' global economy 

Finance chiefs have characterised a minimum tax as necessary to stem competition between countries over who can offer multinationals the lowest rate. 

For Biden, a global tax agreement will help maintain US competitiveness since he has proposed hiking domestic corporate taxes to pay for an infrastructure and jobs programme with a price tag of around $2 trillion. 

Biden -- whose tax plans face a potentially uphill battle in Congress -- hailed an "important step in moving the global economy forward to be more equitable for workers and middle class families in the United States and around the world." 

He noted that those nations who signed up make up more than 90 percent of the world's economy. 

The OECD's statement said the package "will provide much-needed support to governments needing to raise necessary revenues" to fix their budgets and invest in measures to back the post-Covid recovery. 

Oxfam, a charity, meanwhile said that the deal fell short of a tax level needed to give poorer countries a sufficient share of additional tax revenue. 

Calling the deal "skewed-to-the-rich and completely unfair", Oxfam said that signatories had missed a "once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to build a profoundly more equal world".

G7 pledge to 'do whatever it takes' to safeguard economy

Yahoo – AFP, March 16, 2020

G7 leaders, pictured in 2017, say their finance ministers will talk to each other weekly
as the coronavirus ravages the global economy (AFP Photo/STEPHANE DE SAKUTIN)

Washington (AFP) - Leaders of the G7 industrial powerhouses pledged Monday to join forces to halt economic freefall in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, which they called "a human tragedy."

As the outbreak caused more countries to shut down and brought the global economy to a screeching halt, the leaders stressed the need to join forces and move quickly to address the damage.

"The COVID-19 pandemic is a human tragedy and a global health crisis, which also poses major risks for the world economy," a joint statement from Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States said.

"We resolve to coordinate measures and do whatever it takes, using all policy tools, to achieve strong growth in the G7 economies and to safeguard against downside risks," the leaders said in a statement following an emergency videoconference.

The measures aim to "support immediately and as much as necessary the workers, companies and sectors most affected," the statement said.

The G7 likewise said it would work together on "border management" following the drastic curtailment of movement across borders in an effort to slow the spread of the illness.

With market selloffs triggered by mass quarantines and travel restrictions, governments in the world's wealthiest countries are under pressure to show they can control the situation.

The G7 leaders instructed their finance ministers to consult weekly to implement policy measures and "develop further timely and effective actions."

Health ministers will likewise talk weekly to try to coordinate information to the public and medical know-how and equipment.

The G7 leaders noted the disruption to supply chains due to transportation shutdowns, as well as the harm to families.

They called on global institutions like the IMF to "swiftly" deploy financial assistance to countries that need it.

"We are committed to working together with resolve to implement these measures to respond to this global emergency," they said.

And they said they are "determined not only to restore the level of growth anticipated before the COVID-19 pandemic but also to build the foundation for stronger future growth."

In Washington, the White House called the videoconference "historic" and said the G7 leaders worked to "accelerate the national health and economic responses to the coronavirus pandemic in order to save lives and restore economic growth."

China expresses 'strong dissatisfaction' with G7 on Hong Kong

Yahoo – AFP, August 27, 2019

Beijing has not intervened so far over unrest in Hong Kong, despite ramping
up the rhetoric against demonstrators (AFP Photo/Lillian SUWANRUMPHA)

Beijing (AFP) - Beijing on Tuesday voiced "strong dissatisfaction" with a joint statement issued by the G7 leaders, who backed Hong Kong's autonomy and called for calm after months of civil unrest.

G7 leaders meeting in France on Monday backed Hong Kong's autonomy as laid out in a 1984 agreement between Britain and China, and called for calm in the protest-hit city.

But Beijing has accused foreign governments of interfering over Hong Kong, and foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said the G7 was "meddling" and "harbouring evil intentions".

"We express our strong dissatisfaction and resolute opposition to the statement made by the leaders of the G7 Summit on Hong Kong affairs," Geng said at a press briefing in Beijing.

"We have repeatedly stressed that Hong Kong's affairs are purely China's internal affairs and that no foreign government, organisation or individual has the right to intervene."

Hong Kong has been wracked by more than two months of protests over an attempt by its Beijing-backed government to pass an extradition bill which opponents saw as a huge dent in the city's autonomy.

It has since morphed into a wider call for greater democratic freedoms.

In the G7 statement, the leaders of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States called for calm.

Beijing has previously accused former colonial power Britain of interfering in the semi-autonomous Chinese territory, which was handed over to China in 1997.

"The rule of law, social order, economic livelihood and international image of Hong Kong has been severely affected," Geng said.

"No one cares more about the prosperity and stability of Hong Kong than the Chinese people, including the people of Hong Kong."

The financial hub faced more violence over the weekend, with police saying Monday that they were forced to fire water cannon and a warning shot to fend off "extremely violent" demonstrators, marking some of the worst violence in the last 12 weeks of political unrest in the city.

So far Beijing has not intervened over unrest in the semi-autonomous city, despite ramping up the rhetoric against demonstrators and mounting fears that they may act militarily to quell the violence.

Trump ready to meet Iranian president in potential breakthrough

Yahoo – AFP, Sebastian Smith, Adam Plowright and Stuart Williams, 26 August 2019

Donald Trump said he would meet his Iranian counterpart Hassan
Rouhani 'if the circumstances were correct'

US President Donald Trump said Monday at the G7 summit that he is prepared to meet his Iranian counterpart within weeks in what would amount to a stunning change of direction in the two countries' smouldering standoff.

The potential breakthrough was announced by Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron, who said he would facilitate the first face-to-face meeting between the US president and the Iranians.

The surprise news came after Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif made a dramatic, unscheduled appearance on the sidelines of the summit held in Biarritz on Sunday at the invitation of Macron.

The 41-year-old French leader said the "conditions for a meeting" between Trump and Iran's Hassan Rouhani "in the next few weeks" had been created through intensive diplomacy and consultations.

"If the circumstances were correct, I would certainly agree to that," Trump said at a press conference with Macron at the end of three days of G7 talks.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif made a surprise visit to the G7

Asked if he thought the timeline proposed by his French counterpart was realistic, Trump replied: "It does."

Trump was equally confident that Rouhani would be in favour.

"I think he's going to want to meet. I think Iran wants to get this situation straightened out," he added.

Both men will be in New York for the UN General Assembly at the end of September which could provide the stage for the talks.

Trump has put in place a policy of "maximum pressure" on Tehran over its disputed nuclear programme via crippling sanctions that critics see as raising the risk of conflict in the Middle East between the United States and Iran.

The US president last year unilaterally pulled out of a landmark 2015 international deal that placed limits on Tehran's nuclear activities in exchange for trade, investment and sanctions relief. Trump said the deal gave the Iranians cover to keep pursuing a secret nuclear military programme which they insist does not exist.

Earlier this month, Trump lambasted Macron for sending 'mixed signals' on Iran

Rouhani appeared to accept the idea of opening to talks with Washington.

"I believe that for our country's national interests we must use any tool," Rouhani said of Zarif's Biarritz visit in a speech aired live on state television on Monday.

But hardliners criticised the initiative, with the ultra-conservative Kayhan newspaper saying the trip was "improper" and sent "a message of weakness and desperation."

'Real progress'

Macron has urged the US administration to offer some sort of relief to Iran, such as lifting sanctions on oil sales to China and India, and has raised the possibility of a new credit line to enable exports.

In return, Iran would return to complying with the 2015 deal.

Commenting on the talks about Iran at the G7, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said: "It's a big step forward. Now there is an atmosphere in which talks are welcomed."

Raging fires in the Amazon rainforest were on the G7 agenda

Macron and Trump hailed the common ground found by G7 leaders at their summit, which was dominated by the Iranian nuclear crisis, global trade tensions and fires in the Amazon.

"We have managed to find real points of convergence, unprecedented, very positive, that will allow us to go forward in a very useful way," Macron told the press conference.

Trump said Macron had done a "fantastic job" at the G7.

"This was a very special, a very unified two and a half days and I want to thank you," Trump told his host.

Just a few weeks ago, Trump lambasted Macron for sending "mixed signals" on Iran, and at the end of July the US administration imposed sanctions on Zarif.

Macron acknowledged there had been "nervousness" ahead of the summit because of tensions between the US and Europe on a host of issues.

"A lot depends on the return to the United States of Donald Trump and the way he manages everything," analyst Thomas Gomart from the French foreign affairs think-tank IFRI told AFP.

US-China tariff hikes

Trade war worries

Commenting on his escalating trade war with China, Trump held out hope of a deal to thaw the bruising year-long dispute that has seen tariffs imposed on billions of dollars' worth of goods by both sides.

"I can say we are having very meaningful talks, much more meaningful, I would say, than at any time," he had said at a press conference with Merkel.

Trump said senior Chinese officials had been in contact, though there was no confirmation from the Chinese side.

"I'm not sure they have a choice (on making a deal)," he said. "I don't mean that as a threat. I don't think they have a choice."

Trump arrived in the famed surfing town of Biarritz on Saturday shortly after upping the ante in his trade war with a new round of increased tariffs on Chinese goods.

European leaders have lined up to urge caution and warn about the danger of recession from the conflict.

Macron met Brazil's indigenous chief Raoni Metuktire of the Kayapo people

for talks in Biarritz on Monday evening

'Preserve our lands'

On the final day of the summit, the G7 agenda also included action to help fight fires destroying swaths of the Amazon.

The members agreed to spend $20 million (18 million euros) on the world's biggest rainforest, mainly to send firefighting aircraft to tackle blazes.

Macron said later they also hoped to raise "at least 30 million" dollars for a reforestation plan, to be discussed at the UN in September.

On Monday evening, he held talks in Biarritz with Brazilian indigenous chief Raoni Metuktire who said he had asked the French leader to "help us preserve our lands".

Trump was less vocal on this issue than his partners.

He also stood out from the rest of the G7 leaders in his budding friendship with Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, a former army officer who has given freer rein to industrial farmers and loggers who have made the country an agribusiness power -- at a huge cost to the environment.

Macron had threatened to block an extensive new trade deal between the European Union and Latin America unless Bolsonaro takes serious steps to combat global warming.

Iran foreign minister makes surprise visit to G7 summit

Yahoo – AFP, Adam Plowright, Sebastian Smith and Stuart Williams, August 25, 2019

The G7 leaders wrapped up their long day with a group photo on a stage overlooking
the Biarritz beach, with the city's tall lighthouse in the background (AFP Photo/
ludovic MARIN)

Biarritz (France) (AFP) - Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif flew into Biarritz in southwestern France for the G7 summit on Sunday in a surprise attempt to break a diplomatic deadlock over Tehran's disputed nuclear programme.

Zarif's presence had not been announced and represented a gamble by French host Emmanuel Macron who is seeking to soothe spiralling tensions between Iran and the United States.

The Iranian top diplomat did not hold talks with US President Donald Trump in the French surf town, French diplomats said, but the presence of the two men in the same place sparked hopes of a detente.

"Road ahead is difficult. But worth trying," the US-educated Zarif wrote on Twitter after meeting Macron and French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian as well as British and German officials.

French officials said Trump had been aware of the arrival and suggested that it had been discussed during an impromptu two-hour lunch with Macron on a hotel terrace on Saturday.

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson and US President Donald Trump were on obviously 

friendly terms as they sat down for a working breakfast in the French resort of

Biarritz (AFP Photo/Nicholas Kamm)

"We work with full transparency with the Americans," one diplomat told reporters on condition of anonymity.

Robert Malley, head of the International Crisis Group, a think-tank, said that it was a sign that Trump had given "some positive response" to Macron's proposals for a deal.

"Maybe President Trump told President Macron privately that he was open to some of these ideas," he told AFP.

"The big caveat, the elephant in the room, is that there is considerable room between what President Trump says and what he thinks one day, and what he says and thinks the next," he added.

Also speaking in Biarritz, US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said that Trump had in the past said that if Iran "wants to sit down and negotiate he will not set preconditions."

Mohammad Javad Zarif smiling broadly during talks with President Emmanuel 

Macron and other French officials (AFP Photo)

French officials said the discussions had been "positive" and Zarif left the beach-side gathering in the evening.

'Moving in right direction'

Macron had held talks with Zarif in Paris on the eve of the G7 summit and has been leading efforts to bring Tehran and Washington back to the negotiating table.

Trump's policy of applying "maximum pressure" on Tehran via crippling sanctions has been criticised by European powers and is seen as raising the risk of conflict in the Middle East.

At the end of July, the US Treasury imposed sanctions on Zarif, saying he "spreads the regime’s propaganda and disinformation."

Macron has urged the US administration to offer some sort of relief to Iran, such as lifting sanctions on oil sales to China and India, or a new credit line to enable exports.

French host Emmanuel Macron is looking to find a way to soothe spiralling

tensions between Iran and the US (AFP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

In return, Iran would return to complying with a landmark 2015 deal limiting its nuclear programme, which Trump unilaterally pulled out from last year, Malley explained.

"I suspect that they (the French) are as cautious as I am," Malley added.

Speaking to AFP last week, Zarif said that Macron's suggestions were "moving in the right direction, although we are not definitely there yet."

Zarif was a key architect of the 2015 nuclear deal reached between Iran, the United States, European powers, Russia and China.

Trade war doubts?

The G7 leaders, spouses and other invitees from South America and Africa wrapped up their long day with a group photo on a stage overlooking the Biarritz beach, with the city's tall lighthouse in the background.

They were all smiles and Trump proclaimed that the G7 summit had been going "beautifully."

Key facts about the G7 countries as the summit is held in southwestern France 

(AFP Photo)

However, there was no masking over cracks between the US president and his allies on many issues.

Leaders of the G7 countries -- Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States -- put on a united front as they spent a second day in the high-end French surfing town of Biarritz.

Trump arrived in Biarritz fresh from having drastically upped the ante in the trade war with China.

European leaders lined up to press for caution and on Sunday Trump gave a glimmer of hope that he was reconsidering his all-or-nothing approach to the dispute between the world's two biggest economies.

Asked whether he was having second thoughts about the trade war, Trump, in a rare moment of public self-doubt, replied: "I have second thoughts about everything."

Security is high for the G7 in Biarritz (AFP Photo/Jean-Michel CORNU)

Then in an extraordinary turnaround, Trump's spokeswoman Stephanie Grisham said just hours later that the president had been misunderstood.

He did have regrets, she said, but not what everyone thought.

"He regrets not raising the tariffs higher," she explained.

At a breakfast meeting, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson became the latest of the G7 partners to urge Trump to step back from a trade war that critics fear could tip the world economy into recession.

"Just to register a faint, sheep-like note of our view on the trade war -- we are in favour of trade peace on the whole," Johnson told Trump.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson became the latest of the G7 partners to 

urge Trump to step back from the trade war (AFP Photo/Erin Schaff)

The meeting with Johnson, who is sometimes seen as a British version of the populist, nationalist Trump, underlined the White House's dislike for the powerful European Union.

Trump predicted that Johnson would manage to untangle the mess of Brexit and described the EU as "an anchor around their ankle."

The 73-year-old US leader then promised Johnson a "very big trade deal, bigger than we've ever had."

As G7 feuds, Xi and Putin play up their own club

Yahoo – AFP, Becky Davis, 10 June 2018

A large video screen shows Chinese President Xi Jinping shaking hands with
Russia's President Vladimir Putin before the summit

The leaders of China and Russia Sunday praised the expansion of their regional security bloc at a summit which put on a show of unity in stark contrast to the acrimonious G7 meeting.

President Xi Jinping gave the leaders of Pakistan and India a "special welcome" to their first summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), in the eastern Chinese city of Qingdao, since their countries joined the group last year.

Founded in 2001, the SCO also includes the former Central Asian Soviet republics of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

Iran's President Hassan Rouhani, whose country is an observer member, also attended the meeting as he seeks Chinese and Russian support following the US withdrawal from the nuclear deal with Tehran.

Warning that "unilateralism, trade protectionism and a backlash against globalisation are taking new forms", Xi spoke up for the "pursuit of cooperation for mutual benefit".

While never mentioning the United States by name, he added: "We should reject the Cold War mentality and confrontation between blocs, and oppose the practice of seeking absolute security of oneself at the expense of others, so as to obtain security of all."

Xi, whose government is locked in tough negotiations with the United States to avoid a trade war, said World Trade Organisation rules and the multilateral trading system should be upheld to build an open world economy.

"We should reject self-centred, shortsighted and closed-door policies," said Xi, whose own country has been accused of restricting broad access by foreign firms to its huge market.

Addressing the SCO leaders, Russian President Vladimir Putin said the addition of Pakistan and India means that the organisation "has become even stronger".

The show of unity was in marked contrast to the calamitous end to the Group of Seven meeting in Quebec City, after US President Donald Trump disowned a joint summit statement and lambasted Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as "dishonest" and "weak".

Responding to criticism of Russia in the G7 statement, Putin told reporters that the group should "stop this creative babbling and shift to concrete issues related to real cooperation".

The G7 text made no mention of Russia being invited back into the group despite Trump's support for such a move. Russia was expelled in response to its 2014 annexation of Crimea.

Putin did not miss an opportunity to thumb his nose at the club of leading industrialised democracies, saying that the combined purchasing power of the SCO outstripped the G7.

The People's Daily newspaper, the ruling Chinese Communist party mouthpiece, also took a jab at the group by tweeting two pictures side by side.

A man uses his mobile phone to take a picture during the fireworks show
at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit

The first was the now famous photo of German Chancellor Angela Merkel flanked by leaders such as a furrow-browed French President Emmanuel Macron, all tensely facing off against Trump -- the only one seated, with his arms crossed.

The second depicted Xi at the centre of the SCO leaders striding forward together in smiling unison, a grinning Putin by his side.

"G7 vs. SCO: two meetings on the same day," it taunted.

Trump vs G7

While Xi feted his peers with fireworks, SCO members have their own disagreements, with India concerned about China's trade infrastructure project in disputed territory in arch-rival Pakistan. China and India had their own heated border dispute in the Himalayas last year.

But no disharmony was evident during the two-day summit in Qingdao.

Xi touted security cooperation -- the original raison d'etre of the SCO -- and announced that China would open a 30 billion yuan ($4.7 billion) special lending facility within the bloc's interbank consortium.

Putin said trade and investment among SCO countries was growing and Russia and China would propose a Eurasian economic partnership for all member states.

With the president of aspiring full member Iran looking on, Putin said Moscow still supports the Iran nuclear deal that Trump recently abandoned.

The US withdrawal, he said, "can further destabilise the situation" but Russia is in favour of the "unconditional implementation" of the pact.

Putin, however, voiced his support for Trump's summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Singapore on Tuesday.

For his part, Rouhani said the "US effort to impose its policies on others is an expanding danger".

Rouhani said the US was monitoring the global reaction to its withdrawal from the nuclear deal, and a weak response would encourage it to carry on acting unilaterally.

"This will have many harmful consequences for the global community," he said.

The Iranian president said his country was ready to cooperate with the SCO against terrorism, extremism and separatism.

Related Article:

Trump widens the cracks in world order's foundations

Leaders of the G7 participate in a working session of the G7 Summit in La Malbaie,
Quebec, Canada, June 8, 2018; US President Donald Trump has shown skepticism
and downright hostility toward multilateral institutions (AFP Photo/Ludovic MARIN)

US blames Canada for G7 fiasco, says Trudeau 'stabbed us in the back'

Yahoo – AFP, W.G. Dunlop, June 10, 2018

US President Donald Trump left the G7 summit early en route for Singapore and a 

historic nuclear summit with North Korea's Kim Jong Un, only to take exception 

to comments made by Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at a news conference

(AFP Photo/SAUL LOEB)

Washington (AFP) - The US blamed Canada on Sunday for the disastrous ending to the G7 summit, saying Prime Minister Justin Trudeau "stabbed us in the back," while American allies held Washington responsible.

Just minutes after a joint communique, approved by the leaders of the Group of Seven allies, was published in Canada's summit host city Quebec, US President Donald Trump launched a Twitter broadside, taking exception to comments made by Trudeau at a news conference.

"He really kinda stabbed us in the back," top US economic advisor Larry Kudlow said of Trudeau on CNN's "State of the Union."

"He did a great disservice to the whole G7."

"We went through it. We agreed. We compromised on the communique. We joined the communique in good faith," Kudlow said.

US trade advisor Peter Navarro, speaking on "Fox News Sunday," reinforced that message.

"There's a special place in hell for any foreign leader that engages in bad-faith diplomacy with President Donald J. Trump and then tries to stab him in the back on the way out the door," he said.

"That's what bad-faith Justin Trudeau did with that stunt press conference. That's what weak, dishonest Justin Trudeau did."

Kudlow sought to tie Trump's reaction to the upcoming summit with Kim Jong Un, saying the North Korean leader "must not see American weakness."

Trump -- who has a history of hair-trigger responses to slights -- landed in Singapore on Sunday for the Tuesday summit meeting with Kim.

Before his departure from Canada the previous day, he tweeted: "Based on Justin's false statements at his news conference, and the fact that Canada is charging massive Tariffs to our US farmers, workers and companies, I have instructed our US Reps not to endorse the Communique as we look at Tariffs on automobiles flooding the US Market!"

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau Trudeau told reporters that Trump's 

decision to invoke national security to justify US tariffs on imports of steel 

and aluminum was "insulting" to Canadian veterans (AFP Photo/Lars Hagberg)

'Insulting'

"PM Justin Trudeau of Canada acted so meek and mild during our @G7 meetings only to give a news conference after I left saying that ... he 'will not be pushed around.' Very dishonest & weak," Trump said in his tweet.

Trudeau had told reporters that Trump's decision to invoke national security to justify US tariffs on steel and aluminum imports was "kind of insulting" to Canadian veterans who had stood by their US allies in conflicts dating back to World War I.

"Canadians are polite and reasonable but we will also not be pushed around," he said.

Trudeau said he had told Trump "it would be with regret but it would be with absolute clarity and firmness that we move forward with retaliatory measures on July 1, applying equivalent tariffs to the ones that the Americans have unjustly applied to us."

After Trump's angry tweets, Trudeau's office issued a brief response: "We are focused on everything we accomplished here at the G7 summit. The Prime Minister said nothing he hasn't said before -- both in public, and in private conversations with the president."

On Sunday, Trudeau ignored the barbs from Trump's advisors, tweeting a link to the G7 communique and hailing the "historic and important agreement we all reached."

"That's what matters," he wrote.

'Throwaway remarks'

The outburst against Trudeau, and by association the other G7 members, is only the latest incident in which Trump has clashed with America's closest allies, even as he has had warm words for autocrats like Kim and Russia's Vladimir Putin.

French President Emmanuel Macron's office reacted Sunday by saying that "international cooperation cannot be dictated by fits of anger and throwaway remarks."

Reneging on the commitments agreed in the communique showed "incoherence and inconsistency," it said in a statement.

And German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas tweeted Sunday that Trump had partly "destroyed" Washington's trusting relationship with Europe by pulling out of the joint communique.

The joint communique that was thrashed out over two days of negotiations vowed

 that G7 members would reform multilateral oversight of commerce through the 

World Trade Organization (WTO) and seek to cut tariffs (AFP Photo/LEON NEAL)

When Trump left Quebec, it was thought that a compromise had been reached, despite the tension and the determination of European leaders Macron and Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany to push back against the US president's protectionist policies.

Officials from European delegations quickly leaked copies of the joint statement, and it was published online moments before Trump tweeted.

On board Air Force One, an AFP reporter was told that Trump had approved the agreement, only to be told later of the tweets. A senior US administration official said that Trump had been angered by Trudeau's comments.

'The gig is up'

The joint communique that was thrashed out over two days of negotiations vowed that members would reform multilateral oversight through the World Trade Organization (WTO) and seek to cut tariffs.

"We commit to modernize the WTO to make it more fair as soon as possible. We strive to reduce tariff barriers, non-tariff barriers and subsidies," it said, reflecting the typical language of decades of G7 statements.

But Trump had already said he would not hesitate to shut countries out of the US market if they retaliate against his tariffs.

"The European Union is brutal to the United States... They know it," he insisted in his departing news conference. "When I'm telling them, they're smiling at me. You know, it's like the gig is up."

European officials said Trump had tried to water down the language in the draft communique on the WTO and rules-based trade. In the end, that language stayed in and it was only on climate change that no consensus was reached.

VIDEO: Canadian Prime minister Justin Trudeau closes the G7 summit with a press conference in which he warned that unfair tariffs from the US would be met by an equivalent response from Canada pic.twitter.com/880rnd5L6Z

— AFP news agency (@AFP) June 10, 2018

President Trump's rejection of the text of a consensus statement at the G7 summit comes after three months of escalating trade tensions between Washington and its partners pic.twitter.com/DCyAJNWsa7

— AFP news agency (@AFP) June 10, 2018