Macron says G7 will publish joint declaration on trade despite Trump tariffs row

Mr Trump has suggested that the G7 countries create a no-tariff zone between them in spite of his recent decision to impose tariffs on goods like steel and aluminium

Mr Trump and Mr Macron have frequently said they get along well in spite of their policy differences (LUDOVIC MARIN/AFP/Getty Images)

French President Emmanuel Macron says that world leaders at the G7 summit in Canada will go ahead and publish a joint declaration on trade, even though US President Donald Trump has decided to impose contentious tariffs on the countries involved in the meeting.

The statement came amid concerns that the G7 countries, which in years past have managed to work through the majority of the issues they want to discuss before the meetings even occur, would not be able to reach a consensus with Mr Trump in the room, seemingly keen on a tangle with the countries that are generally considered America's closest allies.

But Mr Macron and other leaders — including UK Prime Minister Theresa May, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, and German Chancellor Angela Merkel — managed to come to agreement among themselves, and have suggested that their unity can be used as a powerful economic counterbalance to the United States as it veers from traditional foreign policy and trade approaches.

Mr Trump has imposed trade tariffs on steel and aluminium imports into the United States in spite of cries from some of its closest allies in the G7 that those measures are mutually destructive and only serve to isolate the United States from international partners.

The US president has largely ignored those arguments, though he has pushed forward with other ideas and has suggested that some countries could be exempt from trade tariffs if they meet special criteria that Mr Trump approves of.

The broader G7 meeting was itself a curious affair, and Mr Trump appeared to snub the summit by leaving early, and by missing at least one meeting with a world leader that had been planned.

But Mr Trump has also signalled that he is conscious of new potential trade arrangements, and even called for a no-tariff zone between the G7 countries to encourage open and free trade.

Mr Trump also suggested during the G7 summit that Russia — which was previously banned from the group after it illegally annexed the Crimean peninsula — should be reintroduced to the group, even though the situation with Crimea had not changed.

Following that suggestion, the other international leaders reportedly pushed back and noted that Russia had ben expelled from the group for what was, in their view, a serious offence.