OTTAWA—The jockeying, arguing, and behind-the-scenes spin have begun.

And the G7 leaders of the world’s seven largest developed economies aren’t even in a room together yet.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is set to host the world leaders, welcoming the first to arrive, French President Emmanuel Macron, Wednesday in Ottawa in advance of the Charlevoix summit.

The Canadian prime minister admitted the group of seven supposedly like-minded allies faces “frank and at times difficult conversations around the G7 table, particularly with the American president on trade, on tariffs,” he said. “At the same time, this is why we have G7 meetings.”

Macron said this year’s summit comes at “a critical moment” with “essential” issues on the table such as the economy, climate change and geopolitical concerns.

However, senior Canadian officials, speaking on a background basis, are blunt about the limited prospects for agreement.

There will be common ground on cleaner oceans, gender equality, and the international security threat posed by North Korea. But the gulf between the U.S. under President Donald Trump and many of his western allies is vast: on trade, on tariffs, on climate change and on complex security issues like the U.S. withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal, which included sanctions on companies — many European — doing business in Iran.

And so Canada says in its view, success would not be defined by joint statements.

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“Honestly, I think success looks like the G7 still exists,” said one senior Canadian official, speaking on background.

The official said the forum itself is “incredibly valuable” and leaders like Trudeau, Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel are unlikely to reach agreement with Trump for the sake of a communiqué.

“We’d all much rather not compromise our own values and positions on things in an effort to be able to sign a meaningless piece of paper. The forum is much more valuable than that,” said the official.

Trump has taken centre stage with confrontational trade actions that hit all of his G7 partners in one way or another over recent weeks. And so none are in a mood to play nice for the sake of it.

“It is apparent that we have a serious problem with multilateral agreements here, and so there will be contentious discussions,” German Chancellor Angela Merkel told the German parliament. “There must not be a compromise simply for the sake of a compromise.”

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Merkel said where an acceptable agreement can’t be reached the Canadian hosts might issue a “chairman’s summary” which she said “is perhaps a more honest path — there is no sense in papering over divisions at will.”

Trump’s economic advisor Larry Kudlow downplayed the impact of it all Wednesday, calling trade tensions within the G7 “a family quarrel” and “tactical disagreements.”

Grilled by reporters asking about the impact of Trump’s actions and whether he was abandoning stalwart American allies and withdrawing from an rules-based international trading system, Kudlow insisted Trump has the “backbone for the fight” that previous administrations lacked.

“I think free world trade is a very good thing indeed. But it is broken, and President Trump is trying to fix it. And that’s the key point,” said Kudlow. He slammed the WTO, the global trading body to which Canada and the European Union have filed notices of lawsuits against the U.S., even as he insisted the U.S. is still “working through” it.

“But international multilateral organizations are not going to determine American policy,” said Kudlow. “I think the president has made that very clear.”

Adding to the tensions were reports out of Washington Wednesday that Trump had confronted his G7 host, Trudeau, in “testy” May 25 phone call. CNN first reported that when Trudeau asked Trump to justify his decision to slap stiff tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum imports in the name of national security, Trump replied “Didn’t you guys burn down the White House in 1812?”

(British forces attacked and burned the White House in 1814 in retaliation for the American attack on Fort York in 1812.)

Two senior Canadian officials declined to discuss specifics of that call, but disagreed with the characterization it was “testy,” calling it instead “frank and direct” as Trudeau’s and Trump’s exchanges often are. One official said Trump’s White House remark was nothing more than an “offhand comment.”

An official PMO readout of the call at the time said the two had discussed NAFTA “including bringing the negotiations to a timely conclusion,” adding Trudeau had raised “strong concerns” about Trump’s intention to expand tariffs to automobile imports, “given the mutually beneficial integration of the Canadian and American auto industries.”

In the crosshairs for similar levies on automobile imports to the U.S. are Trump’s other G7 partners like Japan and nations within the European Union: Germany, France, Italy and the U.K.

British Prime Minister Theresa May talked to Trump by phone for a half-hour Monday and reiterated what Trudeau and others have told him about the tariffs: that they are disappointing and unjustified, a threat to jobs, and simply no way to treat friends and allies.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will have a two-hour meeting with Trump at the White House on Thursday before heading to Quebec.

With files from Bruce Campion-Smith and The Canadian Press

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