G7 Wants to Accelerate WTO Reform, says French President

By Matthew McMullan
Aug 26 2019 |
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Not satisfied yet, but “we’re getting there” says Trump.

The last time the G-7 got together President Donald Trump blew up its typical joint communique because he was beefing with summit’s host, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, over tariffs.

This time, the gang (of rascals that are the political leaders of the world’s largest democratic economies) met in France. The French paid attention to last year’s drama and didn’t bother trying to get Trump to sign a joint statement this time. He’s famously skeptical of multilateralism, and the G-7 is very much a multilateral institution.

He still managed to make news, though. Indeed, the president blew off meetings on climate change policy, which is very much in character; announced that China wants to get back to the bargaining table with Trump administration trade officials, though it’s still unclear if that’s true; and didn’t tell a surprise visit by Iranian diplomats to get lost, which is news unto itself.

He also pitched one of his Florida golf resorts as the location for the next summit, because this is Donald Trump we’re talking about and that would make his resort a lot of money.   

But! In a rare Trump-era win for multilateralism, this happened:  

Yes, that’s right: World Trade Organization reform. Trump's acting unsatisfied, but that's a big deal. Politico (behind a paywall, unfortunately) reports:  

“Macron did not go into specifics about how the G-7 wanted to revamp the WTO, but he began his remarks by describing several challenges posed by China.

"‘The problem is respecting intellectual property, dealing with excess capacity, which sometimes unbalances some world markets, and the ability to deal rapidly with conflicts we may have and with unfair situations,’ Macron said. ‘When this type of trade happens, things don't work very well and we're not properly protected.’"

If WTO rules are updated to address the reality that is industrial overcapacity in China, that would be a big deal. Might not even need Section 232 steel tariffs any longer!

Don’t forget the real reason those steel tariffs went up:

The United States already has plenty of duties in place on Chinese steel and aluminum products, but China’s steel and aluminum industries are massive – really, really massive – and they’re heavily subsidized by the state. The global market in steel and aluminum was in a period of overcapacity in recent years, which means prices were bottoming out because there were too many mills making too much metal, and most of that overcapacity came out of China.

The process of WTO reform will surely be an incredibly tedious one. But the fact that it’s being talked about is newsworthy.

Anyway. Next year, when they probably have the G7 at Mar-a-Lago and Canada is made to pay a fee to rent a hotel room, the president will probably do something like unilaterally declare “Brexit 2”to the surprise of the British delegates. But he certainly won’t be signing any joint communiques.