Group of Seven Tries to Avoid Trump Conflict by Scrapping Joint Communique
Group of Seven nations won't try to reach consensus on a joint communique at next week's leaders summit in Canada, people familiar with the matter said, an acknowledgment of the wide gulf that separates the US from the other members on Ukraine, climate change and other issues.
In place of a single document, G-7 leaders are likely to release standalone joint leaders' statements on various topics, according to the people, who asked not to be identified discussing private deliberations.
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Politico
an hour ago
- Politico
Trump wanted ‘90 deals in 90 days.' Instead, he's finding wins where he can.
President Donald Trump is touting this week's trade agreement with China as the latest triumph of his dealmaking acumen. But his celebratory tone belies an uncomfortable reality: For all his optimistic talk on trade, Trump has made little tangible progress since this spring's tariff spree, so far only securing frameworks of agreements with the U.K. and China and leaving American businesses grappling with continued economic uncertainty. Critics and allies alike say Trump's talk about the China 'deal' signals how eager he is to telegraph progress ahead of the White House's July 8 self-imposed deadline to hash out agreements with trading partners. 'We were promised '90 deals in 90 days.' What we have at this point are 'general frameworks' for the U.K. and China,' said Marc Short, who served as Trump's legislative affairs director and Vice President Mike Pence's chief of staff during the president's first term, referencing Trump trade adviser Peter Navarro's vow. The administration will 'present it as if they're making significant progress and hail these general frameworks as really significant breakthrough deals,' Short added. But 'other countries are seeing that, if I wait this out, he's going to be overly sensitive to bond market yields, or he's going to get himself into trouble, and then he's going to need to get out of it with a deal.' The White House, however, sees the agreement with China as a true win — proof that it went toe-to-toe with its biggest economic adversary and held its own. 'We're in a solid place going forward in these negotiations, because the country that could most push back here, tried to push back and it didn't really go well for them,' said a White House official, granted anonymity to share the administration's thinking. 'We feel good about negotiations. We're increasingly walking into these discussions being able to demonstrate that we do have the cards.' But even Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent acknowledged that it was 'highly likely' that the July deadline could be extended for 18 trading partners he said are negotiating in good faith. Trump downplayed those comments when asked about them Wednesday night, saying that while he 'would' extend the deadline, he didn't think he'd have to. This week's tentative deal with China offers Trump a bit of a boost as he prepares to meet with major world leaders at the G7 summit next week in Canada. Representatives from foreign countries view the upcoming confab as the next best vehicle to nail down something concrete on trade, after White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters on Wednesday that there will be 'quite a few bilateral meetings.' One Canadian official, granted anonymity to speak candidly, said whether progress is made over the next few weeks with any country, 'depends greatly on U.S. bandwidth to respond on tariffs given all other talks.' 'I'd expect if [an agreement] lands, it's much closer to the U.K. document length than 1500+ pages of USMCA,' the official said, referring to the comprehensive North American trade deal known as the U.S.-Mexico Canada Agreement, which Trump negotiated during his first term. The U.S. announced its first trade 'deal' — which was, in reality, the framework for a more detailed future agreement — with the U.K. in May. But that accord has yet to be enacted, with U.S. levies on U.K. exports, including cars, steel and aluminum, remaining in place and provisions on agriculture and other issues still to be hashed out. And this week, Trump quickly declared mission accomplished on China — subject to final approval from both him and China's leader Xi Jinping — even though top negotiators had reached no more than a handshake agreement to deescalate tensions and advance trade talks, after a meeting in Geneva last month failed to move the ball forward. Meanwhile, the administration has continued to promise that deals with major trading partners, like Japan, South Korea, India and the European Union, are 'close' ahead of a July 8 deadline, after which Trump's sweeping and massive 'Liberation Day' tariffs are set to go back into effect. But talks with those countries have yet to bear fruit, and smaller countries, eager to negotiate, are having a hard time getting the administration to consider tweaks to proposals the U.S. has put forward. Even some Trump allies in regular contact with the White House are struggling to understand the administration's approach on trade. If the White House is truly interested in boosting domestic manufacturing, they say, it would move quickly to negotiate deals. That would allow businesses to move forward with some certainty instead of leaving them in limbo. 'You meet with officials at all these agencies, you even meet with Cabinet secretaries, and they all agree that the intent of the tariffs was never to hinder companies who are expanding, or trying to onshore supply chains here,' said one of those allies, granted anonymity to speak candidly about the trade discussions. 'I have no fucking clue what their strategy is.' A second Trump ally was more optimistic, acknowledging that the deals seem 'elusive' but voicing confidence the administration 'can get them done.' Talks with South Korea, for instance, appear to be ramping up after the country's new president, Lee Jae-myung, spoke with Trump last week and selected on Tuesday a chief trade negotiator, Yeo Han-koo. While negotiations between the two countries have been ongoing, the South Korean government had made clear it was not possible to make a deal until a new president was in place after its June 3 elections. Leaders in India, who were negotiating with the administration on trade even before Trump announced its 'Liberation Day' tariffs, appear optimistic that the pace of negotiations is picking up ahead of the July deadline. India's foreign minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar told the French paper Le Figaro earlier this week he was 'hopeful' the country would soon reach an agreement with the U.S. And conversations with the EU — which had stalled, nearly triggering a trade war last month — have moved into a negotiating stage, though progress still remains elusive. The EU has expressed a willingness to engage on issues that have long irritated the U.S., like energy, semiconductors, steel and aluminum and autos, but the U.S. has indicated it will only make concessions on tariffs implemented since Trump took office, and that its flat 10 percent 'baseline' tariff on all countries is off the table for negotiations. That's clouded talks, despite a positive readout from U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer after a meeting with E.U. trade czar Maroš Šefčovič in Paris last week. 'The erratic behavior of the Trump administration has to stop if we want to reach a deal,' Italian Member of the European Parliament Brando Benifei said in an interview. Benifei, who chairs the European Parliament's Delegation for relations with the United States, added that the Trump administration's decision to hike tariffs on steel and aluminum in the middle of trade talks 'is damaging the ongoing negotiations, increasing more uncertainty also for the global economy.' Japanese officials, meanwhile, left Washington empty handed last week following a fifth round of trade talks. The country's trade negotiators said that while talks had 'progressed' Japan had yet to find 'common ground' with the U.S. Prospects for a deal are slightly better for Mexico. President Claudia Sheinbaum said it was 'very likely' that she would speak with Trump at the G7 summit, which she will attend as a guest of Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney. The countries are closing in on a narrow deal that could remove the U.S.'s flat 50 percent tariffs on steel, Bloomberg News was first to report. A person close to the White House, granted anonymity to discuss details of the negotiations, told POLITICO that the countries are weighing a quota-based system, and could reveal more details at next week's G7 summit. Those plans, they said, are not final, and the administration is grappling with pressure from its more protectionist factions that have long requested Trump remain focused on reciprocal tariffs in trade talks. Both Mexico and Canada are not impacted by so-called reciprocal tariffs, and received some exemptions for sector-specific duties because of the pre-existing North American trade deal. Other tariffs, such as those on steel and aluminum, remain in full force. Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-Ohio), a staunch Trump ally, argued the pressure to make deals is on foreign governments, not the White House, at this point. 'There's a lot in the hopper. There's pressure on those other countries because quite frankly it's embarrassing to the EU, it's embarrassing to Japan, it's embarrassing to South Korea that we're making a deal with China first,' Moreno said. 'The reality is that those countries just need to step up, acknowledge that we've had a tilted relationship with them for decades and then they need to fix that and come to the table with a legitimate offer to rebalance our trade.' Even without substantial deals, some on the right continue to point out how U.S. tariffs have already significantly shifted the economic conversation. Baseline reciprocal tariffs of 10 percent remain in effect globally, with tariffs in China at an even higher level of about 55 percent, on average. 'Some, they want to call it 'caving' or 'giving in' or something like that,' said Mark DiPlacido, policy advisor at American Compass, a think tank that embraces economic populism. 'But they're not comparing it to the baseline of where things were at at the beginning of the year.'
New York Times
an hour ago
- New York Times
Trump Steel Tariffs Expanded to Hit Home Appliances
Washing machines, dishwashers, refrigerators and other common household appliances made with steel parts will soon be subject to new tariffs, the Commerce Department said Thursday. The department said in a notice that levies would take effect on so-called steel derivative products on June 23 and will be set at 50 percent. While many products have become subject to higher import taxes since Mr. Trump began implementing his aggressive trade policy this year, Thursday's announcement marked one of the first times that everyday consumer goods were specifically targeted. The result will likely mean higher costs for American households. The new tariffs will be assessed based on the level of steel content in each import, the government said. Thursday's move came one week after the Trump administration doubled tariffs on steel and aluminum imports to 50 percent. They follow wave after wave of similar moves that have targeted cars, auto parts and a host of other goods from many of America's trading partners. The government said that the action was necessary to address 'trade practices that undermine national security.' Note: Goods from Canada and Mexico that fall under the U.S.M.C.A. trade pact — the agreement that replaced NAFTA — are not subject to tariffs that took effect in March targeting those countries. The higher metal levies have already rankled close allies that sell to the United States, including Canada, Mexico and Europe. They have also sent alarms to automakers, plane manufacturers, home builders, oil drillers and other companies that rely on buying metals. Despite Mr. Trump's tariffs, measures of inflation have so far remained muted. Price increases were relatively stable last month, government data showed on Wednesday, and the costs of appliances in particular have increased more slowly than overall inflation did last month. Economists caution, however, that the growing list of tariffs could begin to push up prices more noticeably later this year. Mr. Trump's economic advisers have tried to downplay the economic toll their trade actions take on American consumers. At a Senate hearing on Thursday, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent noted that many companies are opting against passing the costs of tariffs onto their consumers and said that inflation remains under control. 'Inflation in the U.S. is at its slowest pace since 2021 on decelerating cost increases for shelter, food, and energy,' Mr. Bessent said. 'After four years of price increases diminishing the U.S. standard of living, inflation is showing substantial improvement due to the administration's policies.' Colby Smith contributed reporting.
Miami Herald
an hour ago
- Miami Herald
Are Americans worried about Russia using nuclear weapons? What a new poll found
As the war in Ukraine rages on, there is widespread concern among Americans that Russia could resort to using nuclear weapons, according to the latest Quinnipiac University poll. The survey — which sampled 1,265 registered voters June 5-9 — also found that Americans are pessimistic about the likelihood that a ceasefire will be achieved soon. Further, most respondents said they disapprove of President Donald Trump's handling of the conflict, making it the issue the president performed the most poorly on. 'As the Russia-Ukraine war grinds through its third year, Americans make it clear they have little appetite for the way the Trump administration is handling the situation,' polling analyst Tim Malloy said in a news release about the poll. Here is a breakdown of the findings. Trump approval on the war A majority of voters, 57%, said they disapprove of the way Trump has handled the war thus far, while 34% said they approve. Ten percent said they weren't sure. These figures have largely held steady over time. In a March Quinnipiac poll, 55% said they disapproved of the president's stance on the conflict, and 38% said they approved. Opinions on the issue tracked closely with partisan affiliation. Most Republicans, 70%, said they favor the president's approach, while 94% of Democrats and 57% of independents oppose it. Trump's 34% approval rating on the Ukraine war also stands out as the lowest rating among seven issues respondents were asked about, including the Israel-Hamas war, the economy and immigration. On the campaign trail, Trump repeatedly said he could end the European war in 24 hours, but now — four months into his term — the conflict has only escalated. As of early June, there have been an estimated over 1.3 million combined casualties, according to a June study from the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a think tank. Though lacking success, Trump has made continual efforts to negotiate a ceasefire, including by organizing diplomatic summits and speaking directly with both Presidents Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Cease-fire, nuclear weapons and escalation The poll — which has a margin of error of 2.8 percentage points — also asked respondents about the likelihood that a lasting cease-fire will be achieved soon. Less than one-third, 27%, said they are confident that a permanent ceasefire will be reached in the near future. Meanwhile, 69% said they are not confident. While 45% of Republicans expressed optimism, just 14% of Democrats and 24% of independents shared this sentiment. On the other hand, a majority of Americans are worried about the chances of nuclear escalation — a feeling that nuclear experts share, according to previous reporting from McClatchy News. About two-thirds of voters, 64%, said they are concerned about the possibility of Russia using nuclear weapons, while 35% said they are not concerned. Here, there was agreement across the political spectrum, with 75% of Democrats, 61% of independents and 53% of Republicans expressing concern. Further, most respondents said the U.S. military should put boots on the ground if Russia expands the war into a NATO country. Sixty-two percent said 'American troops should get involved' if Russia attacks a NATO nation. Meanwhile, 29% disagreed. Here, again, there was consensus among partisans, with 70% of Democrats, 64% of independents and 54% of Republicans saying America should get involved in this scenario.
