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G7 wrestles with Iran, Amazon fires and trade, but own unity shaky

Zarif's presence had not been expected and it represented a gamble by French host Emmanuel Macron who is seeking to soothe spiralling tensions between Iran and the United States.

G7 wrestles with Iran, Amazon fires and trade, but own unity shaky
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Published : Aug 26, 2019, 1:41 PM IST

Biarritz (France): G7 leaders close their summit on Monday with discussion of world problems including the fires ravaging the Amazon rainforest, but overshadowed by President Donald Trump's trade wars and questions over the group's unity.

The summit in Biarritz, a high-end surfers' paradise in southwestern France, saw a dramatic shift of focus on Saturday when Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif flew in to discuss the diplomatic deadlock on Tehran's disputed nuclear programme.

Zarif's presence had not been expected and it represented a gamble by French host Emmanuel Macron who is seeking to soothe spiralling tensions between Iran and the United States.

The Iranian top diplomat didn't meet Trump, French diplomats said, but the presence of the two men in the same place at least sparked hopes of a detente. Just this July, the US government imposed heavy sanctions seeking to hamper Zarif's travel, and effectively banning him from the United States.

"Road ahead is difficult. But worth trying," the US-educated Zarif tweeted after meeting Macron and French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, as well as British and German representatives.

French officials said Trump, who has imposed crippling sanctions on the Iranian economy over its nuclear programme, had been aware of the arrival.

The sources suggested that the secretive visit had also been discussed during an impromptu two-hour lunch between the US president and Macron on Saturday.

"We work with full transparency with the Americans," one diplomat told reporters on condition of anonymity, despite US media reports that the White House had been taken by surprise.

Trump, who will give a press conference before returning to Washington on Monday, proclaimed that the G7 summit was going "beautifully" on Sunday.
Leaders of the G7 countries -- Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States -- ended their second day with another sumptuous dinner of the finest French cuisine. They also posed for a group photo with the ocean and Biarritz's tall lighthouse as a backdrop.

On the final day, the agenda included discussions of the fires destroying chunks of the Amazon, a scenario that European leaders have described as an assault on the so-called green lungs of the world.

Trump has been less vocal on the issue. He also stands out from the rest of the G7 in his budding friendship with Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, a former army officer who has given freer rein to industrial farmers and loggers who have made the country an agribusiness power -- at huge cost to the environment.

An even bigger issue dividing Trump from the rest of the G7 throughout the summit was trade and the US president's effort to force even close allies into hard negotiations on market access and tariffs.

Trump arrived in Biarritz fresh from having upped the ante with increased tariffs in the escalating trade struggle with China.

European leaders lined up to press for caution and on Sunday Trump gave a glimmer of hope that he was reconsidering his all-or-nothing approach to the dispute between the world's two biggest economies when he appeared to admit he'd had "second thoughts" about the most recent escalation.

But only hours later, Trump's spokeswoman Stephanie Grisham did a 180-degree turn, saying the president had been misunderstood and that his real regret was not to have raised tariffs on China even more strongly.

At a breakfast meeting, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson became the latest of the G7 partners to urge Trump to step back from trade wars that critics fear could tip the world economy into recession.

"Just to register a faint, sheep-like note of our view on the trade war -- we are in favour of trade peace on the whole," Johnson told Trump.

The meeting with Johnson, who is sometimes compared to a British version of the populist, nationalist Trump, also underlined the White House's sometimes chilly relations with the European Union.

Trump predicted that Johnson would manage to untangle the mess of Brexit and described the EU as "an anchor around their ankle".

The 73-year-old US leader then promised Johnson a "very big trade deal, bigger than we've ever had." He and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe separately announced that they had pencilled in a major bilateral trade deal that they hope to sign next month.

A closing joint press conference was scheduled for early Monday.

Biarritz (France): G7 leaders close their summit on Monday with discussion of world problems including the fires ravaging the Amazon rainforest, but overshadowed by President Donald Trump's trade wars and questions over the group's unity.

The summit in Biarritz, a high-end surfers' paradise in southwestern France, saw a dramatic shift of focus on Saturday when Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif flew in to discuss the diplomatic deadlock on Tehran's disputed nuclear programme.

Zarif's presence had not been expected and it represented a gamble by French host Emmanuel Macron who is seeking to soothe spiralling tensions between Iran and the United States.

The Iranian top diplomat didn't meet Trump, French diplomats said, but the presence of the two men in the same place at least sparked hopes of a detente. Just this July, the US government imposed heavy sanctions seeking to hamper Zarif's travel, and effectively banning him from the United States.

"Road ahead is difficult. But worth trying," the US-educated Zarif tweeted after meeting Macron and French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, as well as British and German representatives.

French officials said Trump, who has imposed crippling sanctions on the Iranian economy over its nuclear programme, had been aware of the arrival.

The sources suggested that the secretive visit had also been discussed during an impromptu two-hour lunch between the US president and Macron on Saturday.

"We work with full transparency with the Americans," one diplomat told reporters on condition of anonymity, despite US media reports that the White House had been taken by surprise.

Trump, who will give a press conference before returning to Washington on Monday, proclaimed that the G7 summit was going "beautifully" on Sunday.
Leaders of the G7 countries -- Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States -- ended their second day with another sumptuous dinner of the finest French cuisine. They also posed for a group photo with the ocean and Biarritz's tall lighthouse as a backdrop.

On the final day, the agenda included discussions of the fires destroying chunks of the Amazon, a scenario that European leaders have described as an assault on the so-called green lungs of the world.

Trump has been less vocal on the issue. He also stands out from the rest of the G7 in his budding friendship with Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, a former army officer who has given freer rein to industrial farmers and loggers who have made the country an agribusiness power -- at huge cost to the environment.

An even bigger issue dividing Trump from the rest of the G7 throughout the summit was trade and the US president's effort to force even close allies into hard negotiations on market access and tariffs.

Trump arrived in Biarritz fresh from having upped the ante with increased tariffs in the escalating trade struggle with China.

European leaders lined up to press for caution and on Sunday Trump gave a glimmer of hope that he was reconsidering his all-or-nothing approach to the dispute between the world's two biggest economies when he appeared to admit he'd had "second thoughts" about the most recent escalation.

But only hours later, Trump's spokeswoman Stephanie Grisham did a 180-degree turn, saying the president had been misunderstood and that his real regret was not to have raised tariffs on China even more strongly.

At a breakfast meeting, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson became the latest of the G7 partners to urge Trump to step back from trade wars that critics fear could tip the world economy into recession.

"Just to register a faint, sheep-like note of our view on the trade war -- we are in favour of trade peace on the whole," Johnson told Trump.

The meeting with Johnson, who is sometimes compared to a British version of the populist, nationalist Trump, also underlined the White House's sometimes chilly relations with the European Union.

Trump predicted that Johnson would manage to untangle the mess of Brexit and described the EU as "an anchor around their ankle".

The 73-year-old US leader then promised Johnson a "very big trade deal, bigger than we've ever had." He and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe separately announced that they had pencilled in a major bilateral trade deal that they hope to sign next month.

A closing joint press conference was scheduled for early Monday.

ZCZC
PRI ECO GEN INT
.WASHINGTON FGN57
US-INDIA-TARIFFS
India has world's "worst" tariffs on US products: Senator Graham
By Lalit K Jha
         Washington, Aug 25 (PTI) India is "the worst" in terms of high tariffs on American products, a top American Senator claimed on Sunday, ahead of US President Donald Trump's crucial meeting with Prime Minister Narendra on the sidelines of the G-7 Summit in France which is likely to be dominated by trade frictions between the two countries.
          President Trump, championing his 'America First' policy has been a vocal critic of India for levying "tremendously high" duties on US products, has described the country as a "tariff king".
         "When you look at the world tariff regime; 67 per cent of all the tariffs in the world disadvantage America. There's a higher tariff on American products in the country in which we do business with. India is the worst," Senator Lindsay Graham told CBS.
         Graham, over the past several months has emerged as a close confidant of Trump on issues related to South Asia.
         He was present when Trump held meeting with the visiting Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan at the White House last month.
         Responding to a question, the Senator from South Carolina said he had introduced a bill in the Senate that allows the American President to charge a country the same as it does with the US while doing business.
         "So, like in India... they have a 100 per cent tariff on a lot of our products. Either we increase tariffs on Indian products, or we all go to zero. The goal is to go to zero," Graham said.
         The Trump-Modi meeting assumes significance in the wake of the strain that has popped up in the bilateral relationship on a host of trade and economic issues.
         Ahead of the meeting in France on the sidelines of the G-7 summit, the White House said that trade and tariffs would be important topics of discussion between the two leaders.
         "They will look for solutions on the trade front. The US is looking to India to reduce tariffs and open its markets," a senior administration official said, ahead of the meeting early this week.
         Early this week, India's Ambassador to the US Harsh Vardhan Shringla had met Graham at the US Capitol.
         According to the Indian Embassy, they "discussed the immense potential for closer strategic and economic ties between the world's oldest and largest democracies."
         India has raised tariffs on 28 items, including almond, pulses and walnut, exported from the US in retaliation to America's withdrawal of preferential access for Indian products.
         The Trump administration wants Prime Minister Modi to lower the trade barriers and embrace "fair and reciprocal" trade.
         Trump has also criticised India's high import tariff on the iconic Harley Davidson motorcycles as "unacceptable" though acknowledging that his "good friend" Prime Minister Modi has reduced it from 100 per cent to 50 per cent.
         Last February, India slashed the customs duty on imported motorcycles like Harley-Davidson to 50 per cent after Trump called it "unfair" and threatened to increase the tariff on import of Indian bikes to the US.
         The government on June 21 last year decided to impose these duties in retaliation to the US decision of significantly hiking customs duties on certain steel and aluminium products.
         America, in March last year, imposed 25 per cent tariff on steel and a 10 per cent import duty on aluminium products.
         As India is one of the major exporters of these items to the US, the move has revenue implication of about USD 240 million on domestic steel and aluminium products.
         India has also dragged the US to the World Trade Organisation's (WTO) dispute settlement mechanism over the imposition of import duties on steel and aluminium.
         India exports steel and aluminium products worth about USD 1.5 billion to the US every year. India's exports to the US in 2017-18 stood at USD 47.9 billion, while imports were at USD 26.7 billion. The trade balance is in favour of India.
         The US and China have been locked in a bruising trade war since Trump imposed heavy tariffs on imported steel and aluminium items from China in March last year, a move that sparked fears of a global trade war.
         In response, China imposed tit-for-tat tariffs on billions of dollars worth of American imports. PTI LKJ
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