During private meetings between President Donald Trump, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the rest of the world leaders at the G-7 summit in Canada over the weekend, the group, among other things, reportedly agreed to accelerate NAFTA talks and update the language of the World Trade Organization to make it more equitable, Quebec newspaper The Star reported Sunday.
But before the group could sign off on a joint statement of agreement on trade talks, Trump’s advisers reportedly insisted that the U.S. would not agree to two key points in the statement related to the environment. The points of Trump’s contention: a declaration on climate change that referenced the Paris Accord, which Trump pulled out of last year; and an agreement on decreasing ocean pollution, specifically targeting the plastic industry. While leaders thought Trump may not agree to the climate charter, they had hoped the U.S. would at least consider signing off on the ocean agreement.
According to the Quebec newspaper, talks quickly disintegrated after that and word spread that Trump was planning to hold his own private press conference before leaving the summit early. In that news conference, Trump backtracked on the progress that was reportedly made behind the scenes and “promptly appeared to reject even the ideas on trade embodied in the communiqué he had agreed to,” per The Star.
Trudeau earned Trump’s wrath after he publicly called the summit a success and shared some of the details of his private meetings with Trump. Trump publicly unraveled after that, accusing Trudeau of lying and being “dishonest and very weak” in a series of tweets.
Read The Star’s full report here.
