After the G7 Summit: When you think it can’t get any worse…
The G7 Summit on 8 and 9 June 2018 in Charlevoix, Canada, ended in the worst possible outcome. Even an open clash at the negotiation table would have been better than President Trump’s post-summit withdrawal from the joint communique. On his road of destruction of the existing international order, Donald Trump has deprived the G7 of its operating principle: the forging of shared purpose as a basis of joint action among a select group of important countries. This is a bad omen for the upcoming G20 Summit in Buenos Aires, Argentina, at the end of the year.
If global leaders are running an iron-man race to achieve their national and collective commitments to the Paris Agreement, the G7 meeting of leaders in Charlevoix will be an uphill section of an already grueling course. Expect G7 leaders to reach for aluminium – not plastic – water bottles to quench their thirst during this difficult stretch of the race. Light aluminium water bottles will be heavy with meaning, as G6 leaders consider if they want to limit their ambition to facilitate a G7 consensus on protecting oceans and reducing plastics pollution, or draw the line – acknowledging that action on climate change cannot wait for the next US presidency – and show leadership by issuing an ambitious G6 leaders’ communiqué on climate change, oceans and clean energy.
Trade policy headlines are dominated today by the ups and downs of the United States-China relationship, the renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the Brexit process. There is concern on the effects that disintegrating closely linked economic partners could have on growth, jobs, supply chains, and consumers. The perils of a return to unilateralism and power-based mechanisms threaten the relevance of the World Trade Organization (WTO). Among the challenges confronting global trade governance, however, there is positive energy coming from several regions of the world in the form of renewed and pro-active leadership on preferential trade agreements (PTAs) on the part of the European Union (EU), Japan and Africa. This energy is welcome as it is a source of global cooperation, but more is needed to make sure it complements the multilateral trading system.
In recent years, a growing number of G20 nation states have used various forms of summit diplomacy to enhance engagement with the African continent through regular high-level meetings. These have been operationalised through initiatives such as the 