TAORMINA, Sicily (AP) — The differences are well-known: climate change, trade and migration threaten to throw a summit of the Group of Seven wealthy democracies off its consensus game, with U.S. President Donald Trump cast as the spoiler-in-chief. But it may not play out exactly that way, according to long-time G7 observers.

“It is a forum made for Donald Trump’s particular style. It is highly informal, highly interactive and they speak in very colloquial language to each other,” said John Kirton, director of the G7 Research Group at the University of Toronto. “It is the ultimate lonely hearts club. No one understands how tough it is to have the top job except the peers with the top job in other countries.”

While Trump has met all of the leaders one on one, this will be the first time all seven are around the same table, including also newcomers Emmanuel Macron of France, Theresa May of Britain and the Italian host, Paolo Gentiloni – forging a new dynamic after a year of global political turmoil amid rising nationalism.

Climate policy promises to be the real buzzkill at the G7 party. Endorsing measures to combat terror is expected to find easy agreement, especially after the attack on an English pop music concert killed 22 people Monday night. But some of the trust that fuels such meetings was undermined by a leak of British intelligence in the Manchester attack blamed on a U.S. official, prompting the Britain to decide not to share further intelligence in the case. Trump is also going against the grain on trade with more protectionist stand.

His pending review of U.S. climate policies and decision not to make up his mind before Taormina has braced environmentalists for the possibility of bland language that says little after years of increasingly stronger commitments to reduce reliance on fossil fuels and emissions of in greenhouse gases under the Paris Agreement.

“What we do not want to see is a false compromise on nothing,” said Tobias Muenchmeyer, a political expert for Greenpeace. “We want to see determination and commitment over unity,” with the other partners going ahead without the United States.

Trump’s attempts to impose a U.S. travel ban on some Muslim countries contrast with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s position that immigration is a source of strong, sustainable inclusive growth. Sicily is on the front lines in Europe’s migration crisis, the first landfall for most of the more than 180,000 migrants who arrived in Italy last year – and the reason the Italian government chose Sicily as the backdrop for this summit.

Kirton said Trump has demonstrated the ability to come to bilateral agreements, and it is possible that Taormina will yield deals for which he can claim credit at home. But his volatile style could upend even summit decisions.

“It is always possible the president will change his mind even before he lands in Washington and fire off some more tweets,” Kirton said. </s> TAORMINA, Sicily (AP) — The differences are well-known: climate change, trade and migration threaten to throw a summit of the Group of Seven wealthy democracies off its consensus game, with U.S. President Donald Trump cast as the spoiler-in-chief. But it may not play out exactly that way, according to long-time G7 observers.

“It is a forum made for Donald Trump’s particular style. It is highly informal, highly interactive and they speak in very colloquial language to each other,” said John Kirton, director of the G7 Research Group at the University of Toronto. “It is the ultimate lonely hearts club. No one understands how tough it is to have the top job except the peers with the top job in other countries.”

While Trump has met all of the leaders one on one, this will be the first time all seven are around the same table, including also newcomers Emmanuel Macron of France, Theresa May of Britain and the Italian host, Paolo Gentiloni — forging a new dynamic after a year of global political turmoil amid rising nationalism.

Climate policy promises to be the real buzzkill at the G7 party. Endorsing measures to combat terror is expected to find easy agreement, especially after the attack on an English pop music concert killed 22 people Monday night. But some of the trust that fuels such meetings was undermined by a leak of British intelligence in the Manchester attack blamed on a U.S. official, prompting the Britain to decide not to share further intelligence in the case. Trump is also going against the grain on trade with more protectionist stand.

His pending review of U.S. climate policies and decision not to make up his mind before Taormina has braced environmentalists for the possibility of bland language that says little after years of increasingly stronger commitments to reduce reliance on fossil fuels and emissions of in greenhouse gases under the Paris Agreement.

“What we do not want to see is a false compromise on nothing,” said Tobias Muenchmeyer, a political expert for Greenpeace. “We want to see determination and commitment over unity,” with the other partners going ahead without the United States.

Trump’s attempts to impose a U.S. travel ban on some Muslim countries contrast with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s position that immigration is a source of strong, sustainable inclusive growth. Sicily is on the front lines in Europe’s migration crisis, the first landfall for most of the more than 180,000 migrants who arrived in Italy last year — and the reason the Italian government chose Sicily as the backdrop for this summit.

Kirton said Trump has demonstrated the ability to come to bilateral agreements, and it is possible that Taormina will yield deals for which he can claim credit at home. But his volatile style could upend even summit decisions.

“It is always possible the president will change his mind even before he lands in Washington and fire off some more tweets,” Kirton said. </s> Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Mr Trump described the G7 summit as "tremendously productive"

Leaders of the G7 group of rich nations have failed to agree a statement on climate change.

Six world leaders reaffirmed their commitment to the Paris accord, the world's first comprehensive deal aimed at reducing greenhouse emissions.

However, the US has refused to recommit to the agreement, saying it will make a decision next week.

Mr Trump, who once dismissed global warming as a "hoax", has previously threatened to pull out of the accord.

The Axios news site, quoting three sources, later reported that Mr Trump had told members of his inner circle that the US will withdraw from the Paris agreement.

This is Mr Trump's first G7 summit - during his first foreign trip.

G7 leaders from the US, Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Japan have agreed a statement on fighting terrorism.

'America first' and cultural mishaps

Why is there no deal on climate change?

The final communique issued at the G7 summit in Italy said the US "is in the process of reviewing its policies on climate change and on the Paris Agreement and thus is not in a position to join the consensus on these topics".

However, the other G7 leaders pledged to "reaffirm their strong commitment to swiftly implement the Paris Agreement".

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the discussion on climate change had been "very unsatisfactory", adding "we have a situation of six against one".

Mr Trump tweeted: "I will make my final decision on the Paris Accord next week!"

His economic adviser, Gary Cohn, said Mr Trump "came here to learn. He came here to get smart. His views are evolving... exactly as they should be."

Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Antonio Guterres: "The agreement doesn't collapse if a country leaves"

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, who is also in Sicily for the meeting, told the BBC earlier that the accord would survive regardless of Mr Trump's position.

Analysis by James Reynolds, BBC News, Taormina

There is a new fault line within the G7. An informal G6 (Canada, Japan, the UK, France, Germany, Italy) faces an informal G1 - the US.

The drafters of the summit's final communique had no way of hiding the division which exists on climate change.

The statement noted simply that six countries remained committed to the Paris agreement while the US was in the process of evaluating its participation.

In his closing news conference, Italy's Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni was unable to hide his disappointment with the lack of agreement. On this subject, the G1 acts alone.

What about trade?

The G7 has been a champion of free trade since its inception.

The leaders' last summit in Japan last year stressed the need to avoid protectionism. But this was before the election of Donald Trump and his campaign slogan of "America First".

German weekly Der Spiegel quoted Mr Trump as saying in a meeting with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker on Thursday that Germans were "very bad" regarding car exports to the US.

However, all G7 leaders agreed to back the final communique which pledged to "fight protectionism", while acknowledging that "trade has not always worked to the benefit of everyone".

How about migration?

Leaders from Tunisia, Kenya, Ethiopia, Niger and Nigeria took part in the discussions in Sicilian town Taormina earlier on Saturday.

Italy is keen to encourage the world's wealthiest nations to support African countries in developing their economies, so fewer young people will feel forced to make the dangerous journey to Europe.

However, a diplomat told Reuters that other Italian proposals - which looked to highlight the benefits of migration and promote a major initiative on food security - were dismissed ahead of the summit.

Image copyright AFP Image caption Trump has been tough on migration, trade and climate change

According to the source, Mr Trump's administration was unwilling to highlight benefits of human mobility, Reuters reported.

A statement originally intended to be separate and run into several pages has now been condensed to two paragraphs.

So far this year, more than 1,500 migrants are thought to have drowned in the Mediterranean.

How has Mr Trump's trip gone?

Mr Trump described his first foreign trip as "a truly historic week for our country" and said he was "more hopeful than ever that nations of many faiths... can join together in common cause" in fighting terrorism.

He is now returning to the US, where his approval ratings are low.

Image copyright AFP Image caption Mr Trump, pictured with wife Melania, is no doubt hoping for positive reviews of his first overseas trip

US media have already been casting judgement:

Conservative daily The Washington Times said Mr Trump "neared the end of his first foreign trip Thursday by largely fulfilling a transformative agenda that was more ambitious than anything Mr Obama tried overseas during his first year in office". It went on to note "the president has made no major gaffes on the trip"

But James P. Rubin, a former assistant secretary of state for Bill Clinton, was far less forgiving. Writing in Politico Magazine, he described Mr Trump as doing little more than "muddling" through the engagements. Mr Rubin went on to say that "despite the highly staged events designed to pump up Trump's image, the new administration has done nothing on this trip to restore respect and admiration for US international leadership"

Broadcaster ABC News, meanwhile, chose to focus on the President's "awkward body language moments" - including pushing the Montenegrin prime minister out the way.

Headlines in the US continue to be dominated by alleged Russian meddling in November's election, and there are whisperings of discontent within his own party over policy decisions.

Where else has Trump been this week?

Making his first foreign trip as president, he came to Sicily from Brussels where he had held talks with EU and Nato leaders.

At Nato headquarters, he complained that many Nato member states were not spending enough on defence, expecting the US to bear the burden.

Before that, he visited Pope Francis in Rome and toured the Middle East - first Saudi Arabia, then Israel and the Palestinian territories. </s> (TAORMINA, Italy) — President Donald Trump's views on climate change are "evolving" following discussions with European leaders who are pushing for him to stay in the Paris climate accord, a top White House official said Friday.

"He feels much more knowledgeable on the topic today," said Gary Cohn, Trump's top White House economic adviser. "He came here to learn, he came here to get smarter."

European leaders have used Trump's stops on the continent this week, including at the Group of 7 meeting in Sicily, to launch a last-ditch campaign for Trump to stay in the climate accord. Nearly 200 nations agreed to the 2015 pact aimed at reducing carbon emissions.

French President Emmanuel Macron spoke with Trump at length about the climate deal during a meeting Thursday in Brussels. At the Vatican earlier in the week, Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Parolin made his own pro-Paris pitch to Trump and his advisers. The matter was also a central focus of Trump's two days of talks at the Group of 7 summit, which kicked off Friday on the picturesque Sicilian coast.

At the close of Friday's talks, Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni said six of the G-7 nations — Italy, Britain, France, Germany, Canada and Japan — confirmed "our commitment and our determination" to the Paris agreement. The United States, meanwhile, confirmed "a period of reflection" on the issue, Gentiloni said.

The White House's slow decision-making on the future of the landmark 2015 climate change agreement created the opening for the European leaders' persuasion campaign. Multiple White House meetings on the matter were delayed in recent weeks, and Trump advisers ultimately said he would not make a decision until after he returns to Washington from a nine-day, five-stop international trip.

As a candidate, Trump vowed to withdraw the U.S. from the accord, which was negotiated during the Obama administration. But as the opening months of his presidency have shown, Trump can be moved to change his positions and can be heavily influenced by other world leaders. He backed away from his tough campaign talk about trade with China after a summit with President Xi Jinping and abandoned his criticism of Saudi Arabia's human rights record following his warm welcome in the desert kingdom earlier this week.

Cohn said Trump was struck during his discussions Friday by "how important it is for the United States to show leadership." He said many of the European leaders noted that even if a hundred countries are parties to an agreement, there's "a big gap when you take the biggest economy out."

In Washington, discussions over the climate deal have sown divisions within the White House, splitting the nationalists and the globalists competing for influence within Trump's administration. One potential compromise that's emerged in the White House discussions involves staying in the climate accord, but adjusting the U.S. emissions targets.

Cohn hinted at that prospect as he briefed reporters Thursday night as Air Force One flew from Brussels to Sicily, the final stop on Trump's trip.

"The last levels we put out in the Paris agreement were levels that would be constraining to our economic growth," Cohn said. "But then you get into the whole discussion on Paris, is it non-binding, is it not non-binding, can you change your levels, how easy is it to change your levels."

In a striking comment given Trump's support during the campaign for American coal miners, Cohn also said "coal doesn't even really make that much sense anymore as a feedstock." He singled out natural gas as "such a cleaner fuel" and also noted that the U.S. could become a "manufacturing powerhouse" by investing in wind and solar energy.

Nearly 200 countries are part of the Paris accord and each set their own emissions targets, which are not legally binding. The U.S. pledged to reduce its annual greenhouse gas emissions in 2025 by 26 to 28 percent below 2005 levels, which would be a reduction of about 1.6 billion tons of annual emissions.

A senior French official said Macron and Trump spoke at length about the Paris agreement — at Macron's behest — when they met for lunch Thursday. There was no "disagreement" over the accord itself, the official said, but there were "differences" about how to apply it.

Macron, the newly elected French president, was critical of Trump's threats to pull out of the Paris deal during his own campaign. In a dig at Trump, he invited American climate scientists who felt alienated by the Republican administration to come to France to work.

Even Pope Francis, who has framed climate change as an urgent moral crisis and blamed global warming on an unfair, fossil fuel-based industrial model that harms the poor the most, appeared to be sending a message to Trump. Among the three documents the pope presented Trump as a gift was his 2015 encyclical on the need to protect the environment.

It's unclear if the pope pressed Trump specifically on the Paris accord in their private meeting. But Parolin, the Vatican's secretary of state, did make a direct appeal in a broader meeting with the president and his top aides.

"They were encouraging continued participation in the Paris accord," U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said. "We had a good exchange on the difficulty of balancing climate change, responses to climate change and ensuring that you still have a thriving economy, you still offer people jobs so they can feed their families and have a prosperous economy. That's a difficult balancing act." </s> TAORMINA, Italy -- Donald Trump and his six fellow G7 leaders, who seemed to take up a lot less space next to the larger-than-life U.S. president, agreed Friday to do more to counter violent extremism, but remained far apart on issues like climate change and free trade.

A statement, separate from the not-yet-complete final communique, said that while the G7 is already committed to the fight against terrorism, Monday's deadly attack in Manchester has driven home the need to step up efforts -- and quickly.

"We will bring the fight against terrorism to a higher level by relentlessly preventing, investigating and prosecuting terrorist acts, their perpetrators and supporters," said the text of a joint statement issued in the medieval Sicilian town of Taormina.

"Our shared system of values and norms, respect for human rights and cultural diversity, the promotion of fundamental freedoms and the principles on which our societies are built will remain a beacon for our common action and the first and best defence against this common threat."

To that end, the leaders promised measures that included countering online terrorist propaganda and recruitment, better intelligence-sharing to confront the threat of foreign fighters, increased co-operation among border agencies and working on social inclusion as a way to prevent radicalization.

There was, however, a long way to go before the leaders could arrive at a happy consensus on other issues.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau went into the meeting intending to champion the benefits of free trade and action on climate change at the summit, even with Trump trying ever harder to steer the world in a different direction.

"There are clearly some areas where the Canadian position may not be universally embraced," said Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland.

A Canadian government official with knowledge of the negotiations said sticking points like international trade and the Paris agreement on climate change, which Trump has promised to abandon, would likely keep talks going through the night.

That, it turned out, was an understatement.

While Canada, Italy, Germany, France, Britain and Japan confirmed their commitment to the Paris agreement, Trump -- who promised during the campaign to abandon the accord -- had not yet made up his mind, said Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni.

"He said, 'I would rather take my time and understand the issues and then get to the right decision on that,"' said chief economic adviser, Gary Cohn.

Trump doesn't want anyone to think he does not care about the environment, Cohn added: "His views are evolving. He came here to learn and get smarter."

And on trade, Trump was caught having stoked a contentious fire, as the German news magazine Der Spiegel reported the president had told leaders of the EU before the summit began that the Germans were "bad" for having a large trade surplus with the United States.

Cohn sought to clarify the situation by explaining that Trump had noted, "I don't have a problem with Germany. I have a problem with German trade."

Trudeau, meanwhile, was described by his foreign affairs minister as seeking common ground among the seven leaders, while standing firmly behind Canada's positions.

"We're always going to be clear at these meetings that climate change is a hugely important issue," Freeland said. "It's hugely important for Canadians, and we are proud to be taking a strong stand at home, a strong stand around the world on this issue."

The same thing goes for free trade, she added.

"Canada believes very strongly in a rules-based international trading order. We're a trading nation and we're always going to stand up for that."

Trudeau, who met briefly Friday with British Prime Minister Theresa May, also has a face-to-face with Trump scheduled for Saturday.

The Liberal government had been hoping to secure a meeting in order to continue to press its case on the North American Free Trade Agreement and other big cross-border issues.

Trudeau is expecting to find an ally on free trade, climate change and other so-called progressive issues in Macron, the newly elected French president with whom he had a bilateral meeting Friday.

Macron highlighted their shared relative youth as he spoke of how they can deal with shifting alliances and political upheaval around the globe.

"In a world with more and more imbalance, uncertainty and fascination for authoritarian regimes, where our values are sometimes threatened, the history of our countries should be defended -- our values," Macron said during the public portion of their meeting.

"It's the responsibility of our generation."

Canada will be hosting the G7 summit next year and an official says Trudeau is expected to make inclusive growth and gender equality the major themes of the gathering, which will take place at a remote luxury resort in the Charlevoix region of Quebec. </s> TAORMINA, Italy (Reuters) - Leaders from the world's major industrialised nations began talks on Friday at a G7 summit in Sicily which is expected to expose deep divisions with U.S. President Donald Trump over trade and climate change.

The two-day summit, at a cliff-top hotel overlooking the Mediterranean, began a day after Trump blasted NATO allies for spending too little on defence and described Germany's trade surplus as "very bad" in a meeting with EU officials in Brussels.

After receiving warm receptions in Saudia Arabia and Israel, Trump's confrontational stance with long-standing partners in Europe cast a cloud over the meeting in Taormina, where leaders are due to discuss terrorism, Syria, North Korea and the global economy.

"No doubt, this will be the most challenging G7 summit in years," Donald Tusk, a former Polish prime minister who chairs summits of European Union leaders, said before the meeting.

Trump was elected in November after a campaign in which he rejected many of the tenets that the Group of Seven has stood for, including free trade, multilateralism and the liberal democratic values.

European leaders, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel and new French President Emmanuel Macron, had hoped to use the summit to convince Trump to soften some of his stances.

But diplomats conceded as the talks began that the United States was unlikely to budge, meaning the final communique could be watered down significantly compared to the one the G7 unveiled at its last summit in Japan.

The summit kicked off with a ceremony at an ancient Greek theatre overlooking the sea, where war ships patrolled the sparkling blue waters. Nine fighter jets soared into the sky above Taormina, leaving a trail of smoke in the red-white-green colours of the Italian flag.

The leaders then adjourned to the San Domenico Palace, a one-time Dominican monastery that is now a luxury 5-star hotel. During World War Two, it housed Nazi air force chiefs.

Italy chose to stage the summit in Sicily to draw attention to Africa, which is 140 miles (225 km) from the island at its closest point across the Mediterranean.

More than half a million migrants, most from sub-Saharan Africa, have reached Italy by boat since 2014, taking advantage of the chaos in Libya to launch their perilous crossings.

But trade and climate, to be discussed on Friday afternoon, are the most contentious issues.

Trump, who dismissed human-made global warming as a "hoax" during his election campaign, is threatening to pull the United States out of a 2015 climate deal clinched in Paris in 2015.

Fellow G7 leaders are trying to convince him to stay in. Cohn and other administration officials have said Trump will wait until after the summit to decide.

"This is the first real opportunity that the international community has to force the American administration to begin to show its hand, particularly on environment policy," said Tristen Naylor, a lecturer on development at the University of Oxford and deputy director of the G20 Research Group.

On Thursday in Brussels, with NATO leaders standing alongside him, Trump accused members of the military alliance of owing "massive amounts of money" to the United States and NATO - even though allied contributions are voluntary.

The remarks went down badly with European leaders, who had hoped Trump would use the opportunity to confirm his commitment to Article 5, the core NATO principle that an attack on one member is viewed as an attack on all.

"When an American president cannot commit clearly to Article 5 at a time when everyone is expecting him to do this then there is the risk that Moscow interprets this as meaning it is no longer valid," said Jan Techau of the American Academy in Berlin.

In a private meeting with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, Trump also denounced the German trade surplus as "very bad" and complained about the large number of German cars being sold in the United States, officials said.

Juncker tried to play down the comments ahead of the summit. But they underscored ongoing policy divisions between Trump and his partners four months after he took office.

Trump is attending his first major international summit but is not the only G7 newcomer. Macron, Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni and British Prime Minister Theresa May will also be attending the elite club for the first time.

May is expected to leave a day early, following Monday's suicide bombing at a concert in northern England that killed 22 people carried out by a suspected Islamist militant of Libyan descent who grew up in Britain.

G7 leaders were expected to issue a separate statement on terrorism on Friday, before issuing their formal communique on Saturday. Italian officials have suggested the final communique will be shorter than 10 pages. At the last G7 summit in Japan it totalled 32 pages.

One country that will not be present is Russia. It was expelled from the group in 2014 following its annexation of Crimea from Ukraine.

Trump called for improved ties with Moscow during his election campaign.

But accusations from U.S. intelligence agencies that Russia intervened in the U.S. election to help Trump, and investigations into his campaign's contacts with Russian officials, have hung over his four-month-old presidency and prevented him from getting too close to Moscow.

On Thursday, the Washington Post and NBC News reported that Trump's son-in-law and adviser Jared Kushner was under scrutiny by the FBI because of his meetings with Russian officials before Trump took office. One of Kushner's attorneys said her client would cooperate with the investigation.

Kushner and his wife, Trump's daughter Ivanka, have returned to Washington after accompanying the president for the first part of his first foreign tour. </s> Angela Charlton, Peter Orsi and Luis Andres Henao, The Associated Press 

 



BUENOS AIRES, Argentina -- Leaders of the Group of 20 agreed Saturday to fix the world trading system after difficult, all-night talks in the Argentine capital, but only 19 of them agreed to support the Paris accord on fighting climate change with the United States the lone holdout.

The official summit statement acknowledges flaws in global commerce and calls for reforming the World Trade Organization. It doesn't mention the word “protectionism,” however, after negotiators said that had met resistance from the United States.

Applause broke out in the summit hall as the leaders, including U.S. President Donald Trump, signed off on a final statement at the end of a two-day summit.

The non-binding agreement was reached after talks by diplomats stretched overnight and into daylight on Saturday, amid deep divisions between member nations. European Union officials said the United States was the main holdout on nearly every issue. Trump has criticized the WTO and taken aggressive trade policies targeting China and the EU.

But China also pushed back in talks on steel, South Africa objected to language on trade, Australia didn't want the statement to be too soft on migration and Turkey worried it would push too far on climate change, according to the officials.

A senior White House official said the joint statement meets many U.S. objectives and stressed that it includes language about WTO reform. The official also noted other elements such as language on workforce development and women's economic development and a commitment by China to doing infrastructure financing on “transparent terms.”

According to the official, the language on climate was necessary for Washington to sign on, and Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Russia had appeared sympathetic to the U.S. position but ultimately stayed with the other countries.

With trade tensions between the U.S and China dominating the summit, the Europeans sought to play mediator. They also scaled back their expectations, cutting out mention of rising protectionism - mainly aimed at Trump.

The final language of the statement says, regarding climate, that 19 nations that are signatories to the Paris accord reiterate their commitment to it while the U.S. reiterates its decision to withdraw. It also notes a recent U.N. report that warned damage from global warming will be much worse than previously feared, and expresses support for an upcoming U.N. climate meeting in Poland meant to nail down how countries will meet promises made in the Paris accord.

On global commerce, the statement says the 20 countries support multilateral trade but acknowledge that the current system doesn't work and needs fixing, via “the necessary reform of the WTO to improve its functioning.”

On migration, European officials said the U.S. negotiator said too much talk about it would have been a “deal-breaker” for Trump. So they came up with “minimalist” language that acknowledges growing migrant flows and the importance of shared efforts to support refugees and solve the problems that drive them to flee.

The statement also shows a commitment to a “rules-based international order,” despite Trump's rejection of many of those rules.

“There were moments when we thought all was lost,” one European official said, “moments when we spent two hours on one sentence.”

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the closed-door negotiations.

Thomas Bernes of the Canada-based Centre for International Governance Innovation, who has held leading roles with the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and the Canadian government, said the G-20 had “veered all over the road” at the summit and failed to truly fix trade. The U.S. was out of step on migration and climate change and blocked meaningful agreement on those issues, he added.

“Instead, leaders buried their differences in obscure language and dropped language to fight protectionism, which had been included in every G-20 communique since the leaders' first summit,” he added. “This is clearly a retrograde step forced by United States intransigence.”

“The question is whether we are burying the G-20 in the process,” Bernes added. “Certainly this is a big hit to the credibility of the G-20 to provide resolute leadership in addressing global problems.”

Perhaps surprisingly, one country that was seen as particularly constructive was Russia, the EU officials said. Despite tensions over its military actions on Ukraine and political interference abroad, Russia supports international efforts on trade and climate.

While a statement isn't legally enforceable, the Europeans see it as proof that the G-20 is still relevant and that multilateralism still works.

“Everyone agrees that the WTO should be reformed,” German Chancellor Angela Merkel said. “This is an important agreement.”

“We will send a clear signal - in any case, most of us” - for the success of global climate talks starting in Poland on Sunday, Merkel added.

Merkel's spokesman said that during a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, she also voiced concern about rising tensions in the Kerch Strait off Crimea and pushed for “freedom of shipping into the Sea of Azov.”

Last weekend, Russia seized three Ukrainian naval vessels and their crews in an incident escalating a tug-of-war that began in 2014 when Russia annexed Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula and supported separatist rebels in eastern Ukraine.

Germany and France have sought to mediate between Russia and Ukraine, and spokesman Steffen Seibert said Merkel and Putin agreed that the four countries should hold further talks at the “adviser level.”

Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping were due to meet later Saturday after the summit's close. Their countries have been embroiled in an escalating trade war with new U.S. tariffs on China goods set to take effect a month from now.

“The trade war between the United States and China does not favour international commerce. ... A fight between two big players does not benefit,” said Dante Sica, Argentina's minister of production and labour. “If they are able to begin to agree, it would be a good signal that would reduce the impacts on international commerce.”

In closing remarks, summit host and Argentine President Mauricio Macri said the countries had overcome “a number of challenges” to reach the agreement.

“We have agreed on a statement that reflects the necessity of revitalizing trade, of revitalizing the WTO. .. ”We ratify the concern of everyone over climate change,“ Macri said.

The next G-20 summit is to be held in Osaka, Japan, in June 2019.

Associated Press writers Catherine Lucey and Almudena Calatrava in Buenos Aires contributed to this report. </s> Julie Pace and Jonathan Lemire, The Associated Press 

 



TAORMINA, Italy -- Forceful face-to-face talks this week with fellow world leaders left U.S. President Donald Trump "more knowledgeable" and with "evolving" views about the global climate accord he's threatened to abandon, a top White House official said Friday. Trump also was impressed by their arguments about how crucial U.S. leadership is in supporting international efforts.

The president's new apparent openness to staying in the landmark Paris climate pact came amid a determined pressure campaign by European leaders. During Friday's gathering of the Group of 7 wealthy democracies -- as well as at earlier stops on Trump's first international trip -- leaders have implored him to stick with the 2015 accord aimed at reducing carbon emissions and slowing potentially disastrous global warming.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the G7 leaders "put forward very many arguments" for the U.S. sticking with the agreement. And by Friday evening, White House economic adviser Gary Cohn said Trump's views were indeed "evolving."

"He feels much more knowledgeable on the topic today," Cohn said. "He came here to learn, he came here to get smarter."

While those comments were remarkable given Trump's fierce criticism of the Paris deal as a candidate, they were also in keeping with his emerging pattern as president. A novice in international affairs, Trump has been surprisingly candid about the impact his conversations with world leaders have had in shaping his views on numerous issues.

He backed away from his tough campaign talk about trade with China after a summit with President Xi Jinping. And he abandoned his criticism of Saudi Arabia's human rights record following his warm welcome in the desert kingdom this week.

On Friday, G7 leaders appeared to take a page out of the playbook other countries have followed, emphasizing America's unrivaled influence on the world stage. Cohn told reporters that Trump was struck by "how important it is for the United States to show leadership" and how even in massive international agreements, there's "a big gap when you take the biggest economy out."

White House National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster quickly jumped in to assert that Trump would make his decisions based "on what's best for the American people," hewing to the "America First" policy that energized the president's supporters during last year's election campaign.

Nearly 200 countries are part of the Paris accord, and each sets its own emissions targets, which are not legally binding. The U.S. has pledged to reduce its annual greenhouse gas emissions in 2025 by 26 to 28 per cent below 2005 levels, which would be a reduction of about 1.6 billion tons of annual emissions.

The Trump administration has argued that the U.S. standards are tougher than those set by China, India and others, and therefore have put American businesses at a disadvantage.

After more than a week abroad, Trump will close his international trip Saturday with additional G-7 meetings and an address to U.S. troops at a nearby air base. Unlike many of the leaders, he does not plan a news conference, meaning he'll end his trip without a formal question-and-answer session with journalists that could have included queries about the investigation back home into contacts between Russia and his election campaign.

The G7 marked Trump's final stop on a grueling nine-day trip through the Middle East and Europe. While the president was warmly received in Saudi Arabia and Israel, his reception in Europe was been more tepid given his campaign criticisms of NATO and the European Union, the continent's most powerful institutions.

In Brussels on Thursday, Trump excoriated fellow NATO leaders whose countries don't meet the military alliance's financial goals. The president also raised eyebrows with his comment in a private meeting that Germans are "bad" for having a large trade surplus with the U.S.

The gap between Trump and other G7 leaders on climate underscored his isolation from Europe on some major issues. The other G7 nations -- Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Canada and Japan -- were weighing whether to issue a statement at the close of the summit reiterating their support for the Paris accord, even if the United States was not included.

The White House's slow decision-making on the issue led to the European leaders' persuasion campaign. Multiple White House meetings on the matter were delayed in recent weeks, and Trump advisers ultimately said he would not make a decision until after he returns to Washington this weekend.

In fact, discussions over the climate deal have sown divisions within the White House, splitting the nationalists and the globalists -- including Cohn -- who are competing for influence within Trump's administration. One potential compromise that's emerged involves staying in the climate accord but adjusting the U.S. emissions targets.

Even before arriving in the picturesque Sicilian coastal town of Taormina for the G7 summit, Trump was facing pressure on Paris during his trip.

French President Emmanuel Macron spoke with him at length about the climate deal during a meeting Thursday in Brussels. The Vatican secretary of state, Pietro Parolin, made his own pro-Paris pitch to Trump and his advisers.

Pope Francis, who has framed climate change as an urgent moral crisis and blamed global warming on an unfair, fossil fuel-based industrial model that harms the poor, also appeared to be sending a message to Trump during their meeting. Among the three documents the pope presented as a gift was his 2015 encyclical on the need to protect the environment.

Associated Press writers Colleen Barry and Sylvie Corbet in Taormina, Italy; Angela Charlton in Brussels; and Geir Moulson in Berlin contributed to this report </s> By ANGELA CHARLTON, LUIS ANDRES HENAO and PETER ORSI, Associated Press

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — Leaders of the Group of 20 agreed Saturday to fix the world trading system after difficult, all-night talks in the Argentine capital, but only 19 of them agreed to support the Paris accord on fighting climate change with the United States the lone holdout.

The official summit statement acknowledges flaws in global commerce and calls for reforming the World Trade Organization. It doesn’t mention the word “protectionism,” however, after negotiators said that had met resistance from the United States.

Applause broke out in the summit hall as the leaders, including U.S. President Donald Trump, signed off on a final statement at the end of a two-day summit.

The non-binding agreement was reached after talks by diplomats stretched overnight and into daylight on Saturday, amid deep divisions between member nations. European Union officials said the United States was the main holdout on nearly every issue. Trump has criticized the WTO and taken aggressive trade policies targeting China and the EU.

But China also pushed back in talks on steel, South Africa objected to language on trade, Australia didn’t want the statement to be too soft on migration and Turkey worried it would push too far on climate change, according to the officials.

A senior White House official said the joint statement meets many U.S. objectives and stressed that it includes language about WTO reform.

The official also noted other elements such as language on workforce development and women’s economic development and a commitment by China to doing infrastructure financing on “transparent terms.”

According to the official, the language on climate was necessary for Washington to sign on, and Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Russia had appeared sympathetic to the U.S. position but ultimately stayed with the other countries.

With trade tensions between the U.S and China dominating the summit, the Europeans sought to play mediator. They also scaled back their expectations, cutting out mention of rising protectionism — mainly aimed at Trump.

The final language of the statement says, regarding climate, that 19 nations that are signatories to the Paris accord reiterate their commitment to it while the U.S. reiterates its decision to withdraw. It also notes a recent U.N. report that warned damage from global warming will be much worse than previously feared, and expresses support for an upcoming U.N. climate meeting in Poland meant to nail down how countries will meet promises made in the Paris accord.

On global commerce, the statement says the 20 countries support multilateral trade but acknowledge that the current system doesn’t work and needs fixing, via “the necessary reform of the WTO to improve its functioning.”

On migration, European officials said the U.S. negotiator said too much talk about it would have been a “deal-breaker” for Trump. So they came up with “minimalist” language that acknowledges growing migrant flows and the importance of shared efforts to support refugees and solve the problems that drive them to flee.

The statement also shows a commitment to a “rules-based international order,” despite Trump’s rejection of many of those rules.

“There were moments when we thought all was lost,” one European official said, “moments when we spent two hours on one sentence.”

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the closed-door negotiations.

Thomas Bernes of the Canada-based Centre for International Governance Innovation, who has held leading roles with the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and the Canadian government, said the G-20 had “veered all over the road” at the summit and failed to truly fix trade. The U.S. was out of step on migration and climate change and blocked meaningful agreement on those issues, he added.

“Instead, leaders buried their differences in obscure language and dropped language to fight protectionism, which had been included in every G-20 communique since the leaders’ first summit,” he said. “This is clearly a retrograde step forced by United States intransigence.”

“The question is whether we are burying the G-20 in the process,” Bernes added. “Certainly this is a big hit to the credibility of the G-20 to provide resolute leadership in addressing global problems.”

Perhaps surprisingly, one country that was seen as particularly constructive was Russia, the EU officials said. Despite tensions over its military actions on Ukraine and political interference abroad, Russia supports international efforts on trade and climate.

While a statement isn’t legally enforceable, the Europeans see it as proof that the G-20 is still relevant and that multilateralism still works.

“Everyone agrees that the WTO should be reformed,” German Chancellor Angela Merkel said. “This is an important agreement.”

“We will send a clear signal — in any case, most of us” — for the success of global climate talks starting in Poland on Sunday, Merkel added.

Merkel’s spokesman said that during a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, she also voiced concern about rising tensions in the Kerch Strait off Crimea and pushed for “freedom of shipping into the Sea of Azov.”

Last weekend, Russia seized three Ukrainian naval vessels and their crews in an incident escalating a tug-of-war that began in 2014 when Russia annexed Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula and supported separatist rebels in eastern Ukraine.

Germany and France have sought to mediate between Russia and Ukraine, and Merkel spokesman Steffen Seibert said she and Putin agreed that the four countries should hold further talks at the “adviser level.”

Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping were due to meet later Saturday after the summit’s close. Their countries have been embroiled in an escalating trade war with new U.S. tariffs on China goods set to take effect a month from now.

“The trade war between the United States and China does not favor international commerce. … A fight between two big players does not benefit,” said Dante Sica, Argentina’s minister of production and labor. “If they are able to begin to agree, it would be a good signal that would reduce the impacts on international commerce.”

In closing remarks, summit host and Argentine President Mauricio Macri said the countries had overcome “a number of challenges.”

“We have agreed on a statement that reflects the necessity of revitalizing trade, of revitalizing the WTO. … “We ratify the concern of everyone over climate change,” Macri said.

The next G-20 summit is to be held in Osaka, Japan, in June 2019.

 ___

 Associated Press writers Catherine Lucey and Almudena Calatrava in Buenos Aires and Geir Moulson in Berlin contributed to this report.
The meeting of Group of 7 leaders in Taormina, Italy, concludes with a disagreement on whether to uphold the Paris Agreement; U.S. President Donald Trump is the only leader not to confirm commitment to the agreement, due to his climate change denial.