There have been many intriguing reports coming from the Group of Seven (G7) economic summit that was held in the Quebec city of Charlevoix
Perhaps my favorite was when President Donald Trump explained the new New World Order, in which the United States was no longer going to be the world’s piggy bank.
Trump said he didn’t blame the other leaders for what he saw as an unbalanced trade relationship which hurts the U.S.“People can’t charge us 270 percent and we charge them nothing, that doesn’t work anymore,” he said.He said he believes other countries are now more committed to a fairer trade relationship.“I don’t blame them, I blame our leaders,” he said. “In fact, I congratulate leaders of other leaders for so crazily being able to make those trade deals that were so good for their country and bad for the United States.”But he promised an end to the situation, and even warned of penalties for countries that do not remove trade barriers. He also said that the North American Free Trade Agreement could either be renegotiated, split up into separate trade deals, or the U.S. could pull out entirely.“We are like the piggy bank that everybody is robbing,” he said. “And that ends.”
Now, I will admit to purloining a few dollars from my son’s piggy bank. However, unlike our trading partners, I return the money or supply a good or service he wants that adequately compensates for the money I took.
Essentially, President Trump simply wants the same fairness. In fact, he even offered a “no tariff” deal on his way out the door to his Singapore meeting with Kim Jong Un of North Korea, leaving the remaining 67 leaders scrambling on how to respond to his America First platform.
“No tariffs, no barriers. That’s the way it should be. And no subsidies. I even said, ‘no tariffs,’” Trump insisted.“We had extremely productive discussions on the need to have fair and reciprocal” trade, he said.“We want and expect other nations to provide fair market access to American exports and that we will take whatever steps are necessary to [protect] industry and workers from unfair practices, of which there are many. But we’re getting them worked out, slowly but surely.”
The annual G7 joint communique is usually almost in final form before the leaders meet for the summit, but this year officials were still negotiating behind closed doors as Trump left. The final product was rejected soundly by the President, tweeting his disdain for the finalized version from Air Force One.
West Virginia pundit Don Surber crunched the numbers, proving G7 is actually G1 and 6 dwarfs.
The annual GDPs by country are Canada ($1.8 trillion), France ($2.9 trillion), Germany ($4.2 trillion), Italy ($2.2 trillion), Japan ($5.2 trillion), the United Kingdom ($2.9 trillion), and the United States ($20.4 trillion).The other six have a combined annual economic output of $19.2 trillion.The United States alone is $20.4 trillion.Their combined populations are 439 million people.Ours is 326 million.We do more with three-fourths the population.
So, it appears that Trump used Singapore to “walk away from the table” and plans to make a better deal on our tepid allies.
The drama at the summit also included a recommendation from President Trump that Russia be reinstated as a member of the economic group and a handshake duel between Trump and when French President Emmanuel Macron.
I would like to point out that America’s economic growth for second quarter is on track to double 2017’s full-year pace, and that the Atlanta Fed is forecasting 4.6 percent GDP growth for the second quarter. Trump wants to bring that prosperity to everyone, including the other G7 countries. Perhaps they should consider his deal instead of trying to mold him into a Bush or Obama clone.
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