CANADA ECONOMICS

G-20

GOVERNMENT OF CANADA. PM. July 8, 2017. Prime Minister concludes successful G20 Summit in Germany. The Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, today concluded a successful G20 Leaders’ Summit in Hamburg, Germany.

Hamburg, Germany - During the Summit, Prime Minister Trudeau promoted open, progressive trade that benefits the middle class and those working hard to join it. He also emphasized the importance of gender equality and women’s empowerment, and the need to take action now to address climate change and build clean growth economies that work for everyone.

G20 leaders discussed countering terrorism and issued a joint statement focused on enhancing cooperation, cutting off funding that supports terrorism and preventing the use of the internet for terrorist purposes. Prime Minister Trudeau reiterated Canada’s commitment to work with partners at home and abroad to develop a coordinated global response to counter radicalization that strengthens security and safeguards human rights.

Leaders also reaffirmed their commitment to achieving the sustainable development goals under the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. In support of these goals, Prime Minister Trudeau highlighted Canada’s recently launched Feminist International Assistance Policy, which focuses assistance on the poorest and most vulnerable. This policy recognizes that gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls are the best ways to build a more peaceful, inclusive, and prosperous world.

Quote

“People have asked us to work together to make our societies fairer and more secure. We renewed our commitment to do so during this G20 Summit. As our planet becomes increasingly interconnected, we need to promote strong, sustainable economic growth that works for everyone, and embrace the need to be socially and environmentally responsible. This is about creating jobs and opportunities for everyone, and building a healthier and more prosperous tomorrow for our children and grandchildren.”

— Rt. Hon. Justin Trudeau, Prime Minister of Canada

Quick Facts

• The G20 is the central forum for international cooperation on financial and macroeconomic issues.
• In addition to the Women Entrepreneurs Finance Initiative for which Canada announced a contribution of $20 million, G20 leaders also agreed to establish a Business Women Leaders’ Taskforce. This taskforce will bring together prominent business women from G20 countries to examine ways to increase women’s participation in the economy and support women-owned and women-led enterprises in both the developed and developing world.
• Canada is actively supporting Germany’s initiative #eskills4girls by investing $15.8 million for five projects that will:
• Improve prospects for digitally enabled livelihoods in marginalized communities in Egypt;
• Prepare Haitian youth for digital jobs;
• Prevent child, early and forced marriage by increasing access to education and training for girls and women in select Commonwealth countries;
• Increase skills in the mathematical sciences to promote employability, through the African Institute For Mathematical Sciences Skills; and,
• Build teaching capacity in Dadaab refugee camps in Kenya by increasing access to higher education. 
• Canada will also join and contribute $4 million to the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovation to provide resources and technical expertise to support the development of new vaccines to prevent and contain infectious disease epidemics.  
• As part of efforts to enhance engagement with Africa on fair economic growth, G20 leaders discussed new investment compacts between G20 countries and seven interested African countries (Côte d’Ivoire, Ethiopia, Ghana, Morocco, Rwanda, Senegal, and Tunisia). In that respect, Canada will invest $7.5 million in Ghana for inclusive poverty alleviation through the Mobilizing Domestic Revenues project.

Associated Links

• Canada and the G20: http://international.gc.ca/world-monde/international_relations-relations_internationales/g20/index.aspx?lang=eng&_ga=2.57657577.292400921.1498584263-1509584865.1475765971
• G20 Germany 2017: https://www.g20.org/Webs/G20/EN/Home/home_node.html
• Women Entrepreneurs Finance Initiative: http://www.worldbank.org/en/programs/women-entrepreneurs

Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada. July 10, 2017. Minister Chagger delivers keynote address at the She-Era 2017 Global Conference on Women and Entrepreneurship. Minister emphasizes Canada’s continued commitment to supporting women’s economic empowerment through investments and actions

Hangzhou, China – Full gender equality, including women’s economic empowerment, is necessary for effective poverty reduction and economic growth both in Canada and around the world. This is the message that the Honourable Bardish Chagger, Leader of the Government in the House of Commons and Minister of Small Business and Tourism, delivered today in a keynote address at the 2017 Global Conference on Women and Entrepreneurship in Hangzhou, China.

During her address, “Closing the Economic Inequality Gap: A Woman’s Perspective,” Minister Chagger spoke about how the Government of Canada is approaching the issue of economic inequality among women and is working to address it by promoting diversity, women’s entrepreneurship and gender parity.

The Minister highlighted some of the actions being taken, such as the progressive trade agenda; the introduction of Bill C-25, legislation aimed at improving the representation of women on corporate boards and in senior management; the encouragement of female participation in science, technology, engineering and math; flexible work arrangements; and pay equity legislation for workers in federally regulated industries.

The conference brings together women from around the world and various industries to facilitate female entrepreneurship and create networks. Participants also heard from Jim Yong Kim, President of the World Bank Group; Lakshmi Puri, Assistant Secretary-General of the United Nations; renowned fashion icon Vera Wang; and Jack Ma, the founder of Alibaba. The conference also featured video messages from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Her Majesty Queen Rania Al Abdullah of Jordan.

Quotes

“Canada is committed to diversity and equality, including gender equality and women’s empowerment. I’m proud to represent Prime Minister Trudeau and the Government of Canada at this impressive conference and thrilled to hear from the inspiring and diverse group of leaders and role models to women around the world. Today, women around the world are rising to success and leading impressive enterprises, and I believe that events like this help raise awareness, provide a venue for open dialogue and the sharing of experiences, and encourage women and men to take stronger action to promote equality into the future.”

– The Honourable Bardish Chagger, Leader of the Government in the House of Commons and Minister of Small Business and Tourism

Quick Facts

• The Global Conference on Women and Entrepreneurship is hosted by Alibaba, the world’s largest retailer.
• “Empowerment, Compassion, Aspiration” is the theme of this year’s conference, which features discussions on how women can develop and grow in the SHE-ERA.
• Canadian small and medium-sized enterprises owned by women contribute an estimated $160 billion in economic activity to the Canadian economy.

The Globe and Mail. 10 Jul 2017. Contempt for G20 grows after divided leaders leave vandalized city. Alexander Trampert shook his head as he stared at the smashed windows of the Budnikowsky drug store and the scattered debris inside.

The streets all around him were strewn with broken glass and the charred remains of a makeshift barricade. Several other shops in this neighbourhood in central Hamburg had been looted as well and as residents came out to survey the damage, many were furious at the government’s decision to hold the Group of 20 summit here.
“We expected something but we didn’t expect this,” said Mr. Trampert, a sales manager who lives nearby. “I mean, we are somehow used to minor riots, a fire on the street doesn’t bother anybody here. But, I mean, this dimension? Come on.”
When Angela Merkel selected Hamburg as the site of the 2017 G20 summit, the German Chancellor hoped to showcase her birthplace as a beacon of free speech and democracy. She took pains to meet with protest groups before the summit, hoping to head off any extremist activity and ensure that the voices of dissent were heard.
But by the time world leaders departed on Saturday, this city was reeling from days of violent clashes that left more than 400 police officers injured, around 400 protesters in jail and caused untold damage to businesses and homes.

The Globe and Mail. 10 Jul 2017. Why the G20 is needed more than ever. As Trump leads the United States into increasing isolation, the rest of the world must have forums to meet and fill the vacuum. The Group of 20 is such a flawed beast that it should be put out of its misery. The latest G20 summit, in Hamburg, where Donald Trump – surprise! – wrecked any sense of unity, seems to support the argument that the G20 and the smaller, richer club of countries, the G7, have reached the point of uselessness, even farce.
ERIC REGULY, EUROPEAN BUREAU CHIEF

U.S. President Donald Trump, attending the G20 summit on Saturday, reiterated his decision to pull out of the Paris climate-change accord while the other G20 members reaffirmed their commitment to the deal.
I would disagree. The G20 is needed more than ever precisely because the U.S. President is running a one-country show. Some unity is better than no unity and the Paris climate-change agreement is a case in point.
At the G7 in Taormina, Sicily, in late May, Mr. Trump said he might yank the United States out of the Paris deal, struck in 2015. He did so shortly after the summit and no amount of cajoling among the other G20 countries in Hamburg persuaded him to change his mind. Out meant out.
But look what happened. Nineteen of the G20 countries, including China, India and Russia, came together on the climate file like never before, isolating the United States. The G20’s final statement, published Saturday, called the agreement “irreversible.” To be sure, the Paris agreement is weaker without the participation of its second-biggest polluter, but an agreement that still covers most of the world is better than no agreement.
Indeed, there was considerable fear after Mr. Trump pulled out that the entire accord would collapse. It has not. Even the mayors of more than 50 of the world’s largest cities have endorsed the Paris agreement.
To be sure, there’s a lot to dislike about the G20. Its membership seems to have been arbitrarily selected by the group’s most powerful members, meaning that entire continents are either under- or over-represented.
Spain, whose economy is almost as big as Canada’s, is a member of neither the G20 or the G7. Latin America has three members on the G20 (Mexico, Brazil and Argentina), but sub-Saharan Africa has only one – South Africa. Africa is coming to dominate world population and economic growth, and oil-rich Nigeria, whose population is almost 200 million, has every right to be among the G20, certainly more so than low-growth middle powers such as Canada or Italy.
While no one wants to turn the G20 into a G25 – the G20 is unwieldy enough – it’s time to boot out a couple of the lesser players, or devise a rotating system in which, say, Spain or Nigeria or Norway – one of the biggest names in international aid and the promotion of human rights – get a seat at the table every other year.
The G20 could also do with a lot less pomp, formality and expense. Some of the delegations – the Americans, the Chinese, the Saudis, to name but a few of the lavish spenders – arrive with teams numbered in the hundreds, fleets of helicopters and armoured cars, and rent entire luxury hotels. It’s obscene, unnecessary and delivers the message to the taxpayers who fund such excess that their ruling elites are entirely disconnected from the people. At its essence, the G20 (and the G7) is just a talking shop. It could be held in a Tim Hortons, for all it matters, and might be more productive if it were.
But as far as talking shops go, the G20 is hard to beat. The G7 is too small, is dominated by lowgrowth countries and excludes most of the developing world. The G20 countries can lay claim to two-thirds of the global population, three-quarters of the economic output and 80 per cent of the planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions.
The Hamburg G20 did not accomplish a lot beyond uniting the G19 on the Paris agreement, which is no small thing. It became something of a laughing stock when the unelected and unqualified Ivanka Trump briefly took her father’s place at one of the G20 sessions, reinforcing the global view that the executive arm of the U.S. government is rife with nepotism. The G20 failed to produce a unanimous statement condemning North Korea’s provocative missile tests, one of the world’s most pressing security issues.
Trade was, at best, a partial victory for both the United States and the G19. On trade, the communiqué said the G20 pledged to “continue to fight protectionism,” but in a sop to the Americans recognized “the role of legitimate trade defence instruments.” The wording may be a prelude to Mr. Trump’s vow to hit steel imports with tariffs.
After Mr. Trump’s appearances at the G7 and the G20, it is obvious that H.R. McMaster, Mr. Trump’s security adviser, and Gary Cohn, his economic adviser, were not joking when they wrote in May that they saw the world as an “arena” where countries “engage and compete for advantage.” The American view is that the world is a jungle – survival of the toughest, meanest, cleverest.
And that’s precisely why the G20 – less so the G7 – is essential. Much of the non-U.S. world, notably Angela Merkel’s Germany, still believe in alliances, multilateralism, consensus building and diplomacy because the world faces common problems, from pollution to fighting terrorism.
The G20 often falls short of its goals; it would achieve none of them if it were dissolved because one man, Donald Trump, decided to go rogue. The evidence is the Paris climate agreement. Nineteen endorsements is worse than 20 but far better than none. If multilateralism is to survive in the era of Mr. Trump, the G20 can’t be allowed to die because one guy has no respect for it.

The Globe and Mail. 10 Jul 2017. Hamburg: Government criticized for holding summit near hotbed for radical groups. And with little accomplished at the G20 meeting itself, many people here are now questioning the value of these summits.

“We wasted so much money on this G20,” university student Yassin Mabob said as he peered into a broken storefront window. “When we compare it with what they achieved? Nothing at all. Why should this foolishness continue? We don’t get it. We don’t get it at all.”
He and others condemned the government’s decision to hold the G20 at a trade centre in the heart of Hamburg, only a 20minute walk from the city’s Schanze district, a well-known hotbed for radical groups. Indeed, the epicentre of the antiG20 movement was the Rote Flora, or Red Flower, an old theatre in Schanze that has long been associated with the squatter movement and far-left causes.
This is where tens of thousands of protesters gathered during the summit and on Sunday, the streets around the theatre were lined with damaged buildings and looted stores. In the nearby districts of St. Pauli and upscale Altona, protesters burned cars and set up barricades. About 15,000 police officers had been brought in to control the protests, but officials had to call in 200 more as the violence escalated.
Protests and demonstrations are hardly rare in Hamburg, a wealthy port city with deep working-class roots and a history of leftist sympathies. Attempts to develop vacant property in Schanze and St. Pauli have been met with riots over the years and there were plenty of indications things could turn ugly during the G20.
A gathering in the city’s fish market the day before the summit was dubbed “Welcome to Hell” and featured a giant inflated “black bloc” – the symbol of groups loosely linked to anarchists. When tens of thousands of protesters began marching toward the summit site, they were met by hundreds of police officers. Within minutes, clashes broke out and the police spent the rest of the day, and night, in running battles with protesters across the city. That became the pattern for the next three days and things became so chaotic at times official motorcades had to be diverted and some events for leaders’ spouses were scaled back because of security concerns.
At one point on Thursday, television images showed the surreal scene of G20 leaders listening to Beethoven’s Ode to Joy at the city’s new Elbphilharmonie concert hall while police used water cannons on protesters outside.
“This was organized and long-prepared criminal violence as we have never witnessed it before,” city official Andy Grote told reporters.
Ms. Merkel defended her decision to host the meeting in Hamburg, saying G20 summits had been held in other large cities, such as London and Toronto, and that Hamburg could not have “shirked responsibility.” But her foreign minister, Sigmar Gabriel, suggested that all future G20s should be held in New York, the headquarters of the United Nations.
Some politicians were quick to condemn the decision to locate the meeting in Hamburg and police described the protests as a “new dimension” of violence. “The G20 summit should never have been held in a city … like Hamburg – the security situation is too hard to control,” said Hans-Peter Uhl, a politician in Ms. Merkel’s centre-right coalition.
But many others said the protests shouldn’t deter countries from hosting the G20, which they added was an important occasion for world leaders to meet. The G20 is “absolutely” still relevant, said John Kirton, co-director of the G20 Research Group at the University of Toronto. “It’s getting more effective summit by summit.”
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the G20 serves an important role in pushing leaders to find solutions and prove they are listening to the concerns raised by protesters. “Yes, people are anxious and, yes, people are angry,” Mr. Trudeau told reporters after the summit. “I understand the skepticism and even frustration of people who see these meetings come and go without watching their benefits or their opportunities increase. And what’s more, people around the table are aware of that as well.”
He called the Hamburg summit a success even though there were disagreements between 19 countries and the United States over trade and climate change. Mr. Trudeau cited the Paris climate accord as one example and said, “The fact that the G20 stayed strong and committed [to the accord], even with the United States stepping aside, is a strong indication that the global community in general is committed and united.”
That won’t do much for some store owners in Schanze, who spent the weekend cleaning up what was left of their businesses. “G20 is bad,” said the owner of Rewe City, a grocery store that had been completely ransacked by looters and partly destroyed. “It’s all damaged,” he said, declining to give his name. As he sorted through the mess, Malte Newmann watched him from the street.
“I think it’s good they had the G20 here,” said Mr. Newmann, an advertising manager who lives in the Schanze. The G20 leaders shouldn’t hide away in remote locations and avoid the consequences of their decisions, he added. “Do it where it happens and see what happens,” he said. “So everybody sees the real emotions which are behind this.”

BLOOMBERG. 8 July 2017. G-20 Outcome Shows Trump’s America Is Going Its Own Way
By Josh Wingrove , Gregory Viscusi , and Arne Delfs

• Merkel says G-20 summit in Hamburg was never going to be easy
• Trade, climate are main flashpoints in repeat of May’s G-7
• Haass Says He Doesn’t Expect a Whole Lot From G-20

World leaders forged a fragile compromise at a summit in Germany that failed to conceal the reality that Donald Trump’s America is increasingly going its own way.

The Group of 20 nations meeting in Hamburg agreed to fight protectionism while tacitly recognizing Trump’s concerns about excess steel capacity and what he says are unfair trade practices. On climate change, the U.S. was again isolated, with all 19 other members agreeing that the Paris accord on cutting harmful emissions was “irreversible.”



“I always said that this wouldn’t be easy and that we shouldn’t hide areas of discord,” Chancellor Angela Merkel, the summit host, told reporters on Saturday at the end of two days of talks. “The communique has to reflect those areas where there is no consensus.”

As anti-globalization protesters clashed with police across Hamburg, burning cars and looting shops, G-20 officials struggled to bridge their differences. The difficulty in reaching a form of language acceptable to all hints at the fallout to come from the Trump administration’s breach with the postwar order and his turn toward an America First stance.

“The U.S. seems to be emphasizing ‘we retain full right to take unilateral action,”’ said Thomas Bernes, a former International Monetary Fund and World Bank official who is now a fellow at the Centre for International Governance Innovation, in Waterloo, Canada. “They’ve stepped aside from a system which they helped largely to create and it’s a little bit rudderless now.”

The last global summit, the G-7’s meeting in May, saw huge divisions over climate and trade and this meeting was no different. Leaders are concerned about a potential trade war over steel as Trump gears up for a decision on whether to impose punitive tariffs amid ongoing complaints about dumping on global markets.

The final G-20 statement pledged renewed efforts to combat excess capacity in the steel industry, while referring to the use of “trade defense instruments.” Thus, despite some compromises, the U.S. still has a mechanism at hand to declare a trade war at any time.

The president left the meeting pleased with the outcome. “The #G20Summit was a wonderful success and carried out beautifully by Chancellor Angela Merkel. Thank you!” he said on Twitter.

Trump was “very open” in his contributions during the closed-door sessions, especially on the contentious areas of trade and climate, according to Italy’s Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni, who hosted the president in Sicily during the G-7. “And I think that everybody appreciated this fact,” he said.

In response to an assertion by Trump that he will always defend American workers, France’s Emmanuel Macron gave the example of his Apple iPhone: Designed in the U.S., made in China with some U.S. parts, and sold in Europe, it illustrates the benefits of globalization.

It’s a “profound mistake” to judge the benefits of trade through the prism of deficits or surpluses, Macron told reporters at the summit close. “Protectionism and dumping are both bad answers to our problems.”



Chinese President Xi Jinping took a swipe at “major developed nations” for backsliding toward protection, while making a pitch for China and Russia to step up and assume more global leadership. Trump later scowled and sat with his arms crossed as Xi spoke during a lunchtime session.

The summit also featured the much-anticipated first meeting between Trump and Vladimir Putin, which had been expected to last about 30 minutes but stretched for more than two hours. Putin told reporters on Saturday that Trump had quizzed him about interference in the the 2016 U.S. presidential election, and that he thought Trump accepted his denial of Russian involvement.

Paris Accord

With the U.S. refusing to align itself with the other G-20 members on climate change, the French president made a last-minute attempt to keep Trump on board, organizing an impromptu meeting with the U.K.’s Theresa May and Malcolm Turnbull of Australia. But Macron couldn’t avoid a 19 to one split.

The U.S. announced that “it will immediately cease the implementation of its current nationally-determined contribution” to the Paris climate accord after Trump pulled the U.S. out of the agreement. Instead, it insisted on a reference to fossil fuels and committed to “an approach that lowers emissions while supporting economic growth and improving energy security needs.”

The final statement underlined Trump’s lone stand, saying that all G-20 members except for the U.S. “state that the Paris Agreement is irreversible.”

BLOOMBERG. 8 July 2017. Jobs, Climate and Steel Highlight Trump’s Effect on the G-20
By Josh Wingrove  and John Follain

• Trump wins in push for tougher language on steel capacity
• All G-20 except U.S. says Paris agreement 'irreversible'

Donald Trump’s debut Group of 20 summit yielded a concluding statement covered with the U.S. president’s fingerprints. While the meeting was marred by clashes and vandalism in protests throughout Hamburg, inside the summit venue leaders largely avoided the incendiary – striking a deal on trade while agreeing to disagree on climate.

Here are the main points of the 2017 G-20 communique, as seen by Bloomberg News:

Trade

The leaders will “continue to fight protectionism including all unfair trade practices and recognize the role of legitimate trade defense instruments in this regard.” All countries but the U.S. will hail the first part of that phrase – the anti-protectionism pledge – while Trump may have a wider definition of “legitimate” trade measures than his peers. Leaders also noted the need for “reciprocal and mutually advantageous trade,” evoking dealmaker Trump’s transactional view of the world.

Steel

Leaders committed to “rapidly develop concrete policy solutions that reduce steel excess capacity” and called on members of a global forum on steel – struck up at last year’s G-20 in China – to “fulfill their commitments on enhanced information sharing” within one month. The tougher language is a policy victory for Trump as he considers new tariffs and quotas on U.S. steel imports.

Climate

The U.S. “announced it will immediately cease the implementation of its current nationally-determined contribution and affirms its strong commitment to an approach that lowers emissions while supporting economic growth and improving energy security needs.” While leaders “take note” of the U.S. decision to pull out of the Paris Agreement, all but Trump “agree that the Paris Agreement is irreversible.”

Fossil Fuels

The U.S. touted fossil fuels, saying “it will endeavor to work closely with other countries to help them access and use fossil fuels more cleanly and efficiently.” The two pledges starkly define the U.S. isolation on climate and underscore concerns that the G-20 remains divided.

Global economy

“We will continue to use all policy tools – monetary, fiscal and structural – individually and collectively to achieve our goal of strong, sustainable, balanced and inclusive growth, while enhancing economic and financial resilience.”

This wasn’t contentious and is in line with previous G-20 statements.

The 1%

“We recognize that the benefits of international trade and investment have not been shared widely enough. We need to better enable our people to seize the opportunities and benefits of economic globalization.”

This section mirrors tougher language used in the G-7 statement in May and reflects Trump’s insistence that trade must be “fair” as well as free.

WTO

“We underline the crucial role of the rules-based international trading system” including importance of “WTO-consistent” bilateral pacts. This is win for the Europeans, who insisted on recognition of the WTO in the face of Trump administration skepticism of the multilateral trading regime.

New Era Jobs

The leaders committed to “harnessing digitalization” in part by boosting training for the jobs of tomorrow. Non-controversial.

Migration

“We emphasize the sovereign right of states to manage and control their borders and in this regard to establish policies in their own national interests and national security, as well as the importance that repatriation and reintegration of migrants who are not eligible to remain be safe and humane.”

This again is tougher language that is a nod to efforts by Trump – though not only Trump – to tighten borders.

Women

For the first time, G-20 leaders agreed that “enhanced equal access” for men and women to property, employment and financial services “are fundamental for achieving gender equality and full realization of their rights.” Leaders also agreed that “more needs to be done” to cut the labor-force participation gender gap.

The summit host, Angela Merkel, and Justin Trudeau have built bridges with the U.S. administration – specifically Ivanka Trump – through gender equality initiatives.


FT. 07/09/2017. Donald Trump’s alarming G20 performance. A company would have replaced a CEO with behaviour as erratic as that of the president
By Lawrence Summers

Confusing civility with comity is a grave mistake in human or international relations. Yes, the G20 summit did agree on a common communiqué after the leaders’ meeting. Some see this as an achievement or an indication that some normality in international relations between the US and other countries is being restored. The truth is that at no previous G20 meeting did the possibility that there would not be a common statement agreed by all participants occur to anyone.

Rather than seeing agreement as an achievement, it is more accurate to see the content of the communiqué as a confirmation of the breakdown of international order that many have feared since the election of Donald Trump. The president’s behaviour in and around the summit was unsettling to US allies and confirmed the fears of those who believe that his conduct is the greatest threat to American security.

The existence of the G20 as an annual forum arose from a common belief of major nations that there was a global community with common interests in peace, mutual security, prosperity and economic integration and the containment of threats even as there was competition between nations in the security and economic realms. The idea that the US should lead in the development of the international community has been a central tenet of American foreign policy since the end of the second world war.

Since his election, Mr Trump’s rhetoric has rejected the concept of global community, and expressed a strong belief that the US should seek better deals rather than stronger institutions and systems. In the past month and especially after the G20, it has become clear that Mr Trump’s actions will match his rhetoric. The US is now isolated on the question of how to deal with the long run security threat of climate change. It has forced the G20 to back away from previous commitments to rejecting protectionism. And in part because of American attitudes, the G20 was mute on international migration at a time when refugee issues are more serious than at any moment in the past 50 years.

All of this is troubling enough. What many people fear but few are saying is that in the difficult times that come during any term the president’s character will cause him to act dangerously. As biographer Robert Caro has observed, power may or may not corrupt but it always reveals. Mr Trump has yet to experience a period of economic difficulty or any form of international economic crisis. He has not yet had to make a major military decision in time of crisis. Yet his behaviour has been erratic.

The president chose hours before meeting Russian President Vladimir Putin to cast doubt on judgments of the US intelligence community regarding Russia’s interference with the US election. On the brink of the most important set of international meetings of his presidency so far, he put forward the absurd idea that a main discussion item at the G20 involved Hillary Clinton’s campaign manager, making demonstrably false assertions about his role.

It is rare for heads of government to step away from the table during major summits. When it is necessary, their place is normally taken by the foreign minister or another very senior government official. There is no precedent for a head of government’s adult child taking a seat, as was the case when Ivanka Trump took her father’s place at the G20. There is no precedent for good reason. It is insulting to the others present and sends a signal of disempowerment regarding senior officials.

Mr Trump’s pre-summit speech in Poland expressed the sentiment that the primary question of our time was the will of the west to survive. Such a sentiment is inevitably alienating to the vast majority of humanity that does not live in what the president considers to be the west. Manichean rhetoric from presidents is rarely wise. George W Bush’s reference to an “axis of evil” is generally regarded as a serious error not because the nations he referenced were not evil but because his rhetoric drew those adversaries together. Invoking the idea of the west against the rest as the president did is a graver mis-step.

A corporate chief executive whose public behaviour was as erratic as that of Mr Trump would already have been replaced. The standard for democratically elected officials is appropriately different. But one cannot look at the past months and rule out the possibility of even more aberrant behaviour in the future. The president’s cabinet and his political allies in Congress should never forget that the oaths they swore were not to the defence of the president but to the defence of the constitution.

The writer is Charles W Eliot university professor at Harvard and a former US Treasury secretary

CETA

REUTERS. Jul 8, 2017. EU, Canada agree start of free trade agreement

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union and Canada said on Saturday they had agreed to start a free trade agreement on Sept. 21, paving the way for over 90 percent of the treaty to come into effect.

The Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) has been championed by both sides as a landmark deal for open markets against a protectionist tide, but last-minute wrangles over cheese and pharmaceuticals were holding up its start.

"Meeting at the G20 in Hamburg, reconfirming our joint commitment to the rules-based international trading system, we agreed to set the date of 21 September 2017 to start the provisional application of the agreement, thus allowing for all the necessary implementing measures to be taken before that date," European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said in a statement.

"It is by opening up to each other, by working closely with those who share the same values that we will shape and harness globalization," the joint declaration said.

The agreement will enter definitively into force once all 28 EU member states and parliaments ratify it.

The EU had not been satisfied that Canada would effectively open up its markets to 17,700 additional tonnes of EU cheese and provide guarantees for the patents of European pharmaceuticals.

A spokesman for Canadian trade minister Francois-Philippe Champagne said the allocation of the cheese tariff rate quota would be made before the September deadline.

"So what happens now is that both sides will complete their internal processes and closely consult one another on how the agreement will be implemented. This is about ensuring a smooth transition to a strong start for CETA," the spokesman said.

Both sides had been hoping for the provisional implementation of the agreement this month.

(Reporting by Julia Fioretti, additional reporting by David Ljunggren in Ottawa; Editing by Jon Boyle and Robin Pomeroy)

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LGCJ.: