I’ve covered G7 meetings since 1995. I’ve never seen a country, let alone a G7 member, singled out like this:
g7.gc.ca/en/g7-presiden…
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g7.gc.ca/en/g7-presiden…
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I asked Secretary Mnuchin his reaction. He told me the US, because of tax cuts, still leads the global economy. But he acknowledged the rest of the G7 may disagree.
In fact, they do. I spoke to the finance ministers from the rest of the G7, many of the central bankers, the EC and Eurogroup representatives, and senior officials from the IMF. Unanimous that the US is mistaken and will pay a big price.
“This is a very severe problem for relations between the European Union and the United States,” German Finance Minister Olaf Scholz told me.
“We are very concerned. The economic effects of trade wars are very negative for all,” Bank of Italy Governor Ignazio Visco told me.
“It has been a tense and tough G-7. I would say it has been far more a G-6 plus one than a G-7,” French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire told me.
“I think there was a comment out there that this was the G6+1. It was not. It was the G7...” Mnuchin said. He’s spinning. The US is more isolated than I have ever seen it in the more than two decades I have been doing this.
It was an astounding and depressing weekend. Trump’s assertion the US is more respected than ever around the world is 180 degrees from the truth. I was, frankly, shocked.
There is great anger and frustration around the globe that the world’s largest economy would forfeit its leadership for policies that don’t make economic sense, and that the rest of the G7 don’t understand.
