US-Canada row escalates on summit

German minister: G7 'commotion' has brought EU closer together

QUEBEC CITY - The United States and Canada swung sharply toward a diplomatic and trade crisis on Sunday as top White House advisers lashed out at Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau a day after US President Trump called him "very dishonest and weak".

The spat drew in Germany and France, who sharply criticized Trump's decision to abruptly withdraw his support for a G7 communique hammered out at a Canadian summit on Saturday, accusing him of destroying trust and acting inconsistently.

Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland responded to the White House comments by saying that Canada will retaliate to US tariffs in a measured and reciprocal way and that Canada will always be willing to talk.

"Canada does not conduct its diplomacy through ad hominem attacks ... and we refrain particularly from ad hominem attacks when it comes from a close ally," Freeland said on Sunday.

White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow accused Trudeau of betraying Trump with "polarizing" statements on trade policy that risked making the US leader look weak ahead of a historic summit with Kim Jong-un, top leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

Hours after Trump withdrew his support for the joint statement and attacked Trudeau, Kudlow and trade adviser Peter Navarro drove the message home on Sunday morning news shows in an extraordinary assault on a close US ally and neighbor.

"(Trudeau) really kind of stabbed us in the back," Kudlow, the director of the National Economic Council who had accompanied Trump to the summit of wealthy nations on Saturday, said on CNN's State of the Union.

When Trump's tweets withdrawing support from the G7 statement hit on Saturday, Trudeau's office said he had not said anything in his closing news conference he had not said to Trump before.

Having left the G7 summit in Canada early, Trump's announcement on Twitter that he was backing out of the joint communique torpedoed what appeared to be a fragile consensus on a trade dispute between Washington and its top allies.

"The G7 was a forum for friends - democracies with the same value system - to discuss issues of common interest. Now there is a question mark over that. But it did not start with this G7, but with the election of Donald Trump," said a European official.

Trump also said he might double down on import tariffs by hitting the sensitive auto industry, throwing the G7's efforts to show a united front into disarray.

Events at the G7 summit have brought the European Union closer together, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said on Trump's U-turn. France is also standing by the G7 communique, a French presidency official said.

Reuters - Ap

(China Daily 06/12/2018 page12)