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Protests to greet G7 leaders as they discuss Amazon fires, trade
BIARRITZ, France, Aug 24, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – The leaders of the G7 club of
rich countries meet in southwestern France on Saturday, with the burning
Amazon, diving stock markets and their own stark divisions giving little
grounds for optimism.
US President Donald Trump and fellow Western leaders will also face
protests as they arrive in the famed surfing town of Biarritz — though a
heavy police presence will keep them far from view.
Thousands are to join a march some 30 kilometres (20 miles) south of
Biarritz to denounce leaders over poverty and environmental damage.
The summit was already shaping up to be a difficult encounter with Western
relations badly strained by Trump, but images of billowing smoke above the
Amazon rainforest have lent it a new, even darker mood.
“The Amazon is burning and it’s something that concerns everyone,” Macron
told the Konbini website on Friday.
He has led international pressure on Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro
over the fires, telling him Paris would block efforts to seal a major trade
deal between the EU and Latin America.
He has called for emergency talks at the G7, which runs until Monday, to
find “concrete measures” to tackle the crisis.
“We are going to try and mobilise everyone to raise funding for
reforestation as quickly as possible,” Macron added on Friday.
But Bolsonaro remained defiant.
“There are forest fires all over the world, and this cannot be used as a
pretext for possible international sanctions,” he said in televised remarks,
adding that “some countries” will defend Brazil at the summit.
– Trade threat –
Talks in the beach resort, known for its fierce rainstorms that blow in
from the Atlantic, will also be dominated by the darkening clouds over the
world economy.
Wall Street stocks tanked on Friday after Trump escalated his trade war
with China that is seen as responsible for a global slowdown.
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“We don’t need China and, frankly, would be far… better off without
them,” Trump tweeted on Friday, saying US companies were “hereby ordered to
immediately start looking for an alternative to China.”
His outburst came after China imposed tariffs on US imports worth $75
billion in response to an earlier round of American measures.
But Trump hit back immediately, raising tariffs still further.
“We see trade tensions as the single most important threat to global
growth,” a top EU official told reporters ahead of the G7 summit on condition
of anonymity.
And as he left for Biarritz, Trump also fired a salvo at France,
threatening to slap heavy tariffs on its wine in response to its move to
impose a sales tax on tech giants like Facebook, Apple and Google.
“Those are great American companies, and frankly, I don’t want France
going out and taxing our companies. Very unfair,” he told reporters outside
the White House.
“And if they do that, we’ll be taxing their wine… like they’ve never
seen before.”
When Trump meets Macron at the summit, he will “raise the highly
discriminatory digital services tax that France has decided upon,” a US
official said.
Trump has also threatened to slap tariffs on Germany’s car industry.
– Johnson debut –
Though the Amazon fires and trade will dominate the agenda, the G7 meeting
will also be the full international debut of British Prime Minister Boris
Johnson.
He will meet Trump for the first time as leader and is expected to discuss
the UK’s impending exit from the European Union, which the US president has
enthusiastically backed.
“My message to G7 leaders this week is this: the Britain I lead will be an
international, outward-looking, self-confident nation,” he said on the eve of
the summit.
But though Johnson needs Trump’s support for a free-trade deal, he is at
odds with him on a range of issues including the Iran nuclear crisis, climate
change and global trade.
“Trade tensions are unsettling the global economy,” a British official
told reporters. “There are differences with the US about how to resolve
global trade imbalances.”
Trump will find himself under pressure from the Europeans, particularly
Macron, to ease off on his policy of “maximum pressure” on Iran over its
nuclear programme.
Since pulling out of the landmark 2015 nuclear agreement limiting Tehran’s
nuclear programme, Trump has slapped crippling sanctions on the Iranian
economy.
Macron wants him to put a “pause” on the policy, an aide said recently,
which would enable talks to find a new diplomatic solution to the crisis.
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif told AFP on Friday that
Macron’s “suggestions” to find a way out of the current impasse were “moving
in the right direction.”
Some 13,000 French security forces are deployed in and around Biarritz to
deter any violence, with authorities wary about anti-government “yellow vest”
protesters and anarchists.
Late Friday, 17 people were arrested and four police officers hurt in the
first clashes in Urrugne village near a camp of anti-G7 activists, officials
said.
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