G7 Trumped on climate change

Police walk past a large caricature of US President Donald Trump at an anti-G7 rally in Giardini Naxos, near the venue of the summit in the Sicilian town of Taormina on Saturday. (AP Photo)

TAORMINA, ITALY: US President Donald Trump underscored his determination to break the global mold as he refused to follow the Group of Seven line on global warming and resisted measures on free trade.

A summit of G7 leaders in Sicily wrapped up on Saturday with the US digging in its heels on efforts to curb climate change that Trump’s predecessor, Barack Obama, signed up for in 2015, according to three officials from member delegations who cited a draft of the concluding statement.

In an unprecedented step, the final G7 communique gives the US its own section to say that it is “undergoing a review process” and is unable to join in the discussion, one official said. The other six will recommit to the Paris Agreement on climate change, while Trump tweeted on Saturday that he would come to a decision on it next week.

"The whole discussion about climate has been difficult," German Chancellor Angela Merkel told reporters. “There is right now no agreement. But we have made very clear that we are not moving away from our positions.”

On trade, government officials were said to have found a consensus after haggling over wording on protectionism and reciprocal benefits, one source said. Technical negotiations had stretched until 3am in Taormina to try to reconcile Trump’s "America First" approach with the other leaders’ commitment to open markets.

The result is a reference to combating protectionism to be included in the final text, according to two of the officials. Still, said the third, the document in its current draft clearly falls back by comparison to earlier G7 communiques.

The leaders "found a reasonable solution" on trade that commits to a rules-based system, Merkel said. "We want to make the WTO successful," she said.

The discussions, described by Merkel as “very intense” late on Friday, underscore the Trump administration’s decision to break with the established order honed over decades.

Trump told his fellow leaders on Friday that he had campaigned on a platform of protecting US jobs and would act accordingly, according to the officials, all of whom asked not to be named discussing the private meetings.

The text, which is just six pages long compared to 32 pages last year, will also contain a passage on migration, which it refers to “human mobility", according to one of the officials. It includes a sentence which says that nations also have the right to protect their security, while observing human rights.