G7 – United States - Q&A - Excerpts from the daily press briefing (12.06.18)
Q - What is your assessment of relations with the United States following the G7? In his capacity as head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, does the minster have a plan of action for trying to repair these relations?
A - The G7 summit provided an opportunity to discuss all major international issues and to reaffirm our unity on several major issues, notably security.
Divergent views were also expressed, especially on trade issues, given the measures adopted by the United States affecting imports from Europe, Canada and Japan. The European Union already announced that it would take measures in response to the tariffs within the framework laid down by the WTO rules.
At the same time, we would like to have an in-depth dialogue with the United States in order to develop a joint assessment of the trans-Atlantic trade situation, based on comprehensive and shared facts, in order to eliminate any doubts or misunderstandings. The minister regularly discusses all these issues with his counterpart.
We would also like to promote international business cooperation in order to address the key overarching issues which include in particular combating the theft of intellectual property and addressing certain instances of overcapacity. President Macron therefore proposed hosting a joint conference with China, the United States, Japan and the European countries in order to address these major challenges and to increase the WTO’s effectiveness.
These guidelines will be among the priorities of the French presidency of the G7 in 2019 which will follow the Canadian presidency.