While Trump is busy negotiating new U.S.-North Korean relations, he and his team has made an unlikely foe out of the U.S.' neighbour in the north, Canada. This all happened in the G7 summit held in Quebec, Canada before Trump travelled to Singapore.

The G7 summits are held every year between the leaders of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK, the U.S. and the EU. G7 used to be G8 before Russia was kicked out in 2014 during the Crimea crisis. But now, increasing hostile relations between the U.S. and rest of G7 has led the French government to call the meeting "G6+1".

The main disagreement between the leaders is on the tariffs Trump is trying to impose on imports from other countries and the retaliatory tariffs other countries want to impose to counter US tariffs.

The relationship between the U.S. and the other countries has gotten so hostile (especially Canada) that Trump's trade adviser said there's a "special place in hell" for the Canadian prime minister, Justin Trudeau. Trump himself has called Trudeau "dishonest & weak".

How it all started

Back in the beginning of March, Trump announced to impose 25% and 10% tariffs on all steel and aluminium shipments to the U.S., respectively. In fact, he wanted to impose tariffs on all countries in the world, reasoning that if one country is exempted from tariffs, then the others will ask to be treated similarly.

Trump's decision on tariffs fulfilled his campaign promise of protecting American industries. Trump claimed that countries like China is sustaining a global oversupply of steel and aluminium. The U.S. Department of Commerce published a report under section 232, a statutory provision that allows the U.S. government to investigate potential harms of imports on national security. The report concluded steel imports into the U.S. weaken the American "internal economy" and "impair[s] the national security".

Trade wars, Trump says in a tweet, are "good, and easy to win":

When a country (USA) is losing many billions of dollars on trade with virtually every country it does business with, trade wars are good, and easy to win. Example, when we are down $100 billion with a certain country and they get cute, don’t trade anymore-we win big. It’s easy!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 2, 2018

After being criticised, Trump decided to delay tariffs on Canada by 30 days. Then-Secretary of State Rex Tillerson relayed concern to Trump that imposing tariffs would worsen relationship with allies.

In April, Gary Cohn, Trump's chief economic adviser, resigned to protest the tariffs. Protest from congressional Republicans have fallen on deaf ears. 

"It should be a great day for America," the White House said, according to CBS News.

Fast forward to the end of May. Trump decided it was time to stop exempting tariffs on allies like the EU, Canada and Mexico.

Canadian PM Justin Trudeau had this to say: “The idea that [Canada is] somehow a national security threat to the United States is quite frankly insulting and unacceptable."

While Trump kept complaining about U.S.' trade deficit with China, Canada actually has a trade surplus with the U.S. from 2015 to 2017, according to the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. ABC News reported that U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin tried to use this fact to persuade Trump from imposing tariffs on Canada.

Trump did not listen. He even made up facts in a conversation with Trudeau. According to The Washington Post, this is how the conversation went, according to Trump at least:

Trudeau: No, no, we have no trade deficit with you, we have none. Donald, please. Donald, we have no trade deficit.

Trump: Wrong, Justin, you do.

Trudeau: I didn’t even know. ... I had no idea.

Trump: You’re wrong.

Trudeau: Nope, we have no trade deficit.

Trump: Well, in that case, I feel differently, but I don’t believe it.

Then Trump consulted one of his staff and told him to check the Canadian-US trade deficit. According to Trump, his staff told him:

Well, sir, you’re actually right. We have no deficit, but that doesn’t include energy and timber. … And when you do, we lose $17 billion a year.

The G7 Summit

Fast forward to June. Just a few days before the G7 Summit, Canadian PM Trudeau announced retaliatory tariffs on Canadian imports from the U.S. that matches the tariffs imposed by Trump. The value of American imports subject to the retaliatory tariffs is at $16.6 billion Canadian dollars, or $17 billion Singaporean dollars.

Trudeau criticised Trump again for imposing tariffs on Canada for national security reasons.

"Canadians, we're polite, we're reasonable, but we also will not be pushed around." Trudeau said at the G7 summit.

While on Air Force One to Singapore, Trump withdrew from the G7 communique which he accepted earlier in Quebec. Although Trump cited national security as the reason to impose tariffs, he now cites Canadian dairy tariffs as the reason.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Trump's retraction was "sobering and a little depressing".

It seems that even Canada, a generally unoffending country and long-time American ally, cannot escape Trump's trade war.

Top image by Jesco Denzel/German Federal Government.