Before G-7 Summit Meeting, Trump Rails Against Canadian Tariffs

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump railed Friday against Canadian tariffs on U.S. dairy products as he prepared to travel to Canada, where he is likely to be greeted with an icy welcome before a financial summit meeting with longtime U.S. allies.

“We’re going to deal with the very unfair trade practices,” Trump said Friday, threatening to terminate the North American Free Trade Agreement if he cannot strike deals with U.S. allies, a promise he campaigned on as well.

The president also suggested that Russia be brought back into the multinational alliance after it was kicked out in 2014. Trump is traveling to Canada for a meeting with the Group of 7, or G-7, an alliance among the United States, Canada, Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Japan. The president has already angered longtime U.S. allies over his trade policies.

Earlier Friday, Trump issued a trio of tweets about how the United States has been subjected to unfair trade deals. He said Canadian tariffs on dairy products were “Not fair to our farmers!”

“Canada charges the U.S. a 270% tariff on Dairy Products!” Trump wrote. “They didn’t tell you that, did they? Not fair to our farmers! Looking forward to straightening out unfair Trade Deals with the G-7 countries. If it doesn’t happen, we come out even better!”

He continued, “I am heading for Canada and the G-7 for talks that will mostly center on the long time unfair trade practiced against the United States. From there I go to Singapore and talks with North Korea on Denuclearization. Won’t be talking about the Russian Witch Hunt Hoax for a while!”

Trump has already said he would skip most of the second day of the summit meetings, which means he would most likely miss sessions on climate change, clean energy and oceans.

The feisty tweets came a day after the leaders of France and Canada accused the United States on Thursday of an illegal economic assault on their countries by levying tariffs of their steel and aluminum industries out of national security concerns.

“The American President may not mind being isolated, but neither do we mind signing a 6 country agreement if need be,” President Emmanuel Macron of France said Thursday in a tweet. “Because these 6 countries represent values, they represent an economic market which has the weight of history behind it and which is now a true international force.”

It is exceedingly rare for U.S. allies to present such raw and unified outrage at the U.S. president. But Trump has shattered norms and dropped out of agreements on the climate, trade and the Iran nuclear deal.