BIARRITZ, France—The White House doubled down on President Trump’s commitment to the U.S. trade war with China on Sunday after the president appeared to show a glimmer of regret about escalating trade tensions at the Group of Seven summit here, where world leaders have largely decried his trade practices.
Asked during a breakfast with U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson whether he had any second thoughts about ramping up the trade war with the announcement of increased tariffs last week in response to new levies from Beijing, Mr. Trump told reporters: “Yeah, sure. Why not?” Pressed further, he added: “Might as well. I have second thoughts about everything.”
White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham, some hours later, said the president’s answer had been “greatly misinterpreted.” In a statement, she said, “President Trump responded in the affirmative—because he regrets not raising the tariffs higher.”
The decision to even more tightly embrace the trade war served as another reminder of the president’s off-the-cuff approach to foreign and economic policy and is likely to further intensify fears about a possible recession. The escalation in tariffs from both China and the U.S. last week sent stocks and government bonds tumbling.
The move also underscored what has become a familiar routine of isolation for Mr. Trump at gatherings of world leaders, where the president treads his own path to the consternation of his counterparts.
Other leaders attending the G-7 have called for an end to the president’s regime of tariffs, saying they are damaging the global economy and weakening alliances. The president in the past two days has clashed with other world leaders—and at times, his own administration—over Iran, North Korea and Russia, even as he sought to project an image of bonhomie with his counterparts.
Those contradictions were visible in several split-screen moments between the U.S. and other G-7 countries—and between the president and his advisers—that left the summit feeling whiplashed.
As G-7 host President Emmanuel Macron walked into a roundtable meeting with Mr. Trump and the other leaders, a senior adviser to the French leader was overheard telling him: “We must lower tensions.”
European Council President Donald Tusk, speaking at the summit on Saturday, said ending trade wars was “urgent and essential.”
“Trade wars will lead to recession, while trade deals will boost the economy, not to mention the fact that trade wars among G-7 members will lead to eroding the already weakened trust among us,” he said.
Mr. Trump, as he left Washington for France on Friday, threatened to tax French wine if Mr. Macron moved forward with a tax on U.S. tech companies. In the past, he has repeatedly threatened to place tariffs on European cars.
Mr. Trump on Sunday again criticized Beijing’s trade practices as “outrageous” and asserted his right to declare a national emergency on the matter, which the White House believes would give the president the authority to direct companies not to do business with China. On Friday, Mr. Trump in a series of tweets said he was ordering companies doing business with China to explore relocating—a directive he currently lacks the authority to give.
Tweeting from Air Force One on his way to France, Mr. Trump said he could enforce that order via the Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1977, which allows the president to block individual companies’ actions—but only if he declares a national emergency first. Asked Sunday if he planned to do so, Mr. Trump told reporters: “I have the right to,” but didn’t say whether he would pursue that course of action.
“When they steal and take our intellectual property…in many ways that’s an emergency,” he said, but added: “I have no plans right now.” Mr. Trump said the U.S. was “getting along very well with China right now.”
Mr. Trump disputed that other members of the G-7, which includes France, Germany, the U.K., Japan, Italy and Canada, were pressuring him to end the trade war. “I think they respect the trade war,” Mr. Trump said, the morning after he met with the rest of the G-7 leaders at an opening dinner here. “Nobody has told me that, and nobody would tell me that.”
Minutes later, Mr. Johnson said just that. “Just to register the faint, sheeplike note of our view on the trade war, we’re in favor of trade peace on the whole, and dialing it down if we can,” he told the president. “We don’t like tariffs on the whole.”
That lunch was one in a series of meetings in which G-7 leaders tried to squeeze concessions from Mr. Trump without TV cameras and aides around him.
On Sunday, a close aide to Mr. Macron said the G-7 leaders had agreed during a closed-door dinner Saturday on two main goals regarding Iran: Prevent Tehran from getting nuclear arms and find a path for dialogue. The aide said the leaders decided it would be up to Mr. Macron, as G-7 president, to pass on the message to Iran.
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That illusion of cooperation was knocked down minutes later. Mr. Trump, asked if he signed off on a message to Iran that Mr. Macron would present, said he hadn’t discussed it. A person familiar with the matter said the president hadn’t agreed that France could relay a message to Iran, since he hadn’t agreed to the message that would be sent.
“We will do our own outreach, but I can’t stop people from talking,” Mr. Trump said. “If they want to talk, they can talk.”
“President Trump is right, there’s no formal mandate from the G-7,” Mr. Macron later said.
The president also shattered the appearance of consensus on Russia. A U.S. official said Sunday that the leaders agreed it was too soon to invite Russia to rejoin the G-7, after Mr. Trump in recent days had called for reinstating Moscow as a member. Russia was ejected from the group in 2014 over its annexation of Crimea. But Mr. Trump, in a meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, told reporters there were “a number of people who would like to see Russia back” and that a decision had not been made on whether to extend the invitation.
Also in the meeting with Mr. Abe, Mr. Trump said North Korea’s missile tests didn’t violate any agreements, saying he was “not happy” about it but “we’re in a world of missiles, folks, whether you like it or not.” Mr. Abe said it was “very clear” that the missile tests violated United Nations Security Council resolutions.
Earlier Sunday, the president lashed out against reports of tension between the U.S. and other G-7 members. “Before I arrived in France, the Fake and Disgusting News was saying that relations with the 6 others countries in the G-7 are very tense, and that the two days of meetings will be a disaster,” he wrote. “Well, we are having very good meetings, the Leaders are getting along very well, and our Country, economically, is doing great - the talk of the world!”
Yet hours after Mr. Trump arrived in Biarritz, U.S. officials began privately criticizing Mr. Macron for his handling of the meeting, accusing his government of ignoring Washington’s input ahead of the event and of focusing its agenda on “niche” issues, such as climate change and development in Africa, to appeal to the French president’s political base.
Climate change was a major focus of last year’s G-7, too, and other world leaders said the issue was a priority ahead of this year’s summit, particularly as fires raging in the Amazon have prompted concerns about damage to the region’s ecosystem and the global environment.
—Valentina Pop contributed to this article.
Write to Rebecca Ballhaus at Rebecca.Ballhaus@wsj.com and Noemie Bisserbe at noemie.bisserbe@wsj.com
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https://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-suggests-second-thoughts-about-trade-war-11566728236
2019-08-25 13:08:00Z
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