Web Desk/AFP

ONTARIO: France&#39;s foreign minister criticized &quot;military operations&quot; in the Caribbean at a G7 meeting on Tuesday, as the deployment of a US aircraft carrier strike group escalated an arms buildup in the region. Speaking to reporters at the start of a Group of Seven gathering in Canada, top French diplomat Jean-Noel Barrot said it was crucial to avoid &quot;instability caused by potential escalations,&quot; after Venezuela warned the US deployments could trigger a full-blown conflict. &quot;We have observed, with concern, military operations in the Caribbean region because they disregard international law,&quot; Barrot said, without citing specific US actions. But the comments at the meet near Niagara Falls came after the USS Gerald R. Ford, the world&#39;s largest aircraft carrier, entered an area under control of the US Naval Forces Southern Command, which encompasses Latin America and the Caribbean. President Donald Trump&#39;s administration is conducting a military campaign in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific, deploying naval and air forces for an anti-drugs offensive. Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has accused the Trump administration of &quot;fabricating a war&quot; while pursuing a regime change plot in disguise. Barrot said it was essential for the G7 club of industrialized democracies to &quot;work in concert&quot; to confront the global narcotics trade, noting that more than a million French citizens live in the Caribbean and could be impacted by any potential unrest. &lsquo;We&#39;ve had a lot of problems&#39; with France: TrumpSeparately, US President Donald Trump also took a sudden swipe at France during an interview with US broadcaster Fox News, saying &quot;we&#39;ve had a lot of problems with the French.&quot;&nbsp;Fox News presenter Laura Ingraham questioned the US president on the enrolment of Chinese students at US universities, saying, &quot;they&#39;re not the French, they&#39;re the Chinese. They spy on us. They steal our intellectual property.&quot;&nbsp;But Trump abruptly cut in to respond, saying: &quot;Do you think the French are better, really? I will tell you, I&#39;m not so sure.&quot;&nbsp;Trump, who has been locked in a trade war with Beijing, has had a well-catalogued hands-on relationship with his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron, full of muscular handshakes, mutual backslapping and knee-touching for the cameras.&nbsp;Macron in September even rang the US leader directly to tell him he was being blocked on the street by the presidential convoy in New York as he rushed to a meeting from the UN headquarters.&nbsp;But the pair&#39;s bromance has occasionally been tetchy, with Trump notably opposed to Macron&#39;s recognition of a Palestinian state and climate policy.&nbsp;The US leader has also pushed Europe to step up funding of its own defense through NATO, with Macron part of the continent&#39;s multi-pronged charm offensive to keep Trump onside with military support of Ukraine against Russia.&nbsp;In the Fox interview, Trump switched focus from China to France&#39;s taxation policies, which he said were an issue for the United States.&nbsp;&quot;We&#39;ve had a lot of problems with the French where we get taxed unfairly on our technology,&quot; Trump said.&nbsp;Trump has previously said he would impose &quot;substantial&quot; extra tariffs on countries that introduced &quot;discriminatory&quot; digital taxes. Ukraine, SudanCanadian Foreign Minister Anita Anand, the meeting host, said bolstering Ukraine would feature prominently at the talks, but has stopped short of promising concrete G7 action to support Kyiv&#39;s efforts against invasion by Russia. As the meeting began, the UK announced &pound;13 million ($17.1 million) of funding to help repair Ukraine&#39;s energy sector, which has sustained massive Russian attacks in recent days. Britain also announced a maritime services ban on Russian liquid natural gas. Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper said Russian President Vladimir Putin &quot;is trying to plunge Ukraine into darkness and the cold as winter approaches.&quot; At the G7, Cooper plans &quot;to galvanize (Britain&#39;s) closest partners to continue to stand up for Ukraine in the face of Putin&#39;s mindless aggression,&quot; the foreign office said. Anand told reporters that Sudan&#39;s escalating crisis will be addressed Tuesday at a working dinner on global security. She said Canada was &quot;absolutely horrified&quot; by the conflict that has triggered one of the world&#39;s worst humanitarian crises, and that the G7 would work &quot;to support those who are suffering and dying needlessly in Sudan.&quot; Anand is set for a bilateral meeting with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio before the G7 meeting closes on Wednesday. But she said she did not expect to press the issue of Trump&#39;s trade war, which has forced Canadian job losses and squeezed economic growth. &quot;We will have a meeting and have many topics to discuss concerning global affairs,&quot; Anand told AFP. &quot;The trade issue is being dealt with by other ministers.&quot; Trump abruptly ended trade talks with Canada last month &mdash; just after an apparently cordial White House meeting with Prime Minister Mark Carney. The president has voiced fury over an ad, produced by Ontario&#39;s provincial government, which quoted former US president Ronald Reagan on the harm caused by tariffs.

Europe

US administration is conducting a military campaign in the Caribbean, eastern Pacific, deploying naval and air forces for an anti-drugs offensive; US President Donald Trump says "we've had a lot of problems with the French."

 



France warns over Caribbean 'instability' as G7 talks open

BEIJING: China and the United States agreed Saturday to conduct another round of trade negotiations in the coming week, as the world&#39;s two biggest economies seek to avoid another damaging tit-for-tat tariff battle. Beijing last week announced sweeping controls on the critical rare earths industry, prompting US President Donald Trump to threaten 100 percent tariffs on imports from China in retaliation. Trump had also threatened to cancel his expected meeting with Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in South Korea later this month on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit. In the latest indication of efforts to resolve their dispute, Chinese state media reported that Vice Premier He Lifeng and US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent had &quot;candid, in-depth and constructive exchanges&quot; during a Saturday morning call, and that both sides agreed to hold a new round of trade talks &quot;as soon as possible&quot;. On social media, Bessent described the discussions as &quot;frank and detailed&quot;, and said they would meet &quot;in-person next week to continue our discussions&quot;. Bessent had previously accused China of seeking to harm the rest of the world by tightening restrictions rare earths, which are critical to everything from smartphones to guided missiles. US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer also participated in the call, according to the report by Chinese state news agency Xinhua. Hours before the call, Fox News released excerpts of an interview with Trump in which he said that he would meet Xi at the APEC summit after all. Coordinated response&nbsp;The high-level video call came as Washington worked to rally Group of Seven finance ministers in response to the latest Chinese export controls. For now, the G7 ministers have agreed to coordinate a short-term response and diversify suppliers, the EU&#39;s economy commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis told reporters in Washington. Speaking after the grouping met this week, Dombrovskis noted the vast majority of rare earth supplies come from China, meaning that diversification could take years. &quot;We agreed, both bilaterally with the US and at the G7 level, to coordinate our approach,&quot; he said on the sidelines of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank&#39;s fall meetings. Countries would also exchange information on their contacts with Chinese counterparts as they work out short-term solutions, he added. German Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil told journalists he hopes that Trump and Xi&#39;s meeting can help to resolve much of the US-China trade conflict. &quot;We have made it clear within the G7 that we do not agree with China&#39;s approach,&quot; he added, referring to the group of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States. International Monetary Fund chief Kristalina Georgieva also expressed hope Friday for an agreement between the countries to cool tensions. The US-China trade war reignited this year as Trump promised sweeping tariffs on imports soon after returning to office. At one point, US-China tariffs escalated to triple-digit levels, effectively halting some trade as businesses waited for a resolution. The two countries have since lowered their respective levies, but their truce has remained shaky.

Americas

China and the United States agreed to hold new trade talks after tensions flared over rare earth export controls and tariff threats. Both sides signaled willingness to negotiate as G7 nations coordinated responses.

China and US agree to fresh trade talks

WASHINGTON: Canada&#39;s finance minister voiced optimism Thursday that the Group of Seven nations can &quot;move from dependence to resilience&quot; in the face of China&#39;s tightening rare earth export controls. Speaking to AFP in Washington, Canadian Finance Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne said rare earths were a key topic in around two hours of talks with his G7 counterparts on Wednesday. He expressed hope, however, that Canada and its allies can find solutions together to &quot;move from dependence to resilience.&quot; &quot;Around the table, we have all the solutions to address this issue, including Canada, which has critical minerals,&quot; he said. Chinese export controls&nbsp;In early October, China announced fresh controls on the export of rare earth technologies and items, drawing a fiery rebuke from US President Donald Trump. Trump swiftly threatened to slap an additional 100-percent US tariff on goods from China, a move that would again snarl supply chains. Champagne&#39;s remarks to AFP came on the sidelines of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank&#39;s fall meetings, where he chaired the gathering of G7 finance leaders. Other leaders in the grouping -- consisting of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States -- have raised worries over China&#39;s rare earth controls as well. &lsquo;Deeply concerned&rsquo;Japan&#39;s Finance Minister Katsunobu Kato said his country is &quot;deeply concerned&quot; about the extensive restrictions China announced, urging for a united G7 response. UK Finance Minister Rachel Reeves criticized Beijing&#39;s move as a &quot;wrong decision&quot; that is dangerous for the global economy. And US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Wednesday slammed China&#39;s actions, vowing that: &quot;We are not going to let a group of bureaucrats in Beijing try to manage the global supply chains.&quot; Bessent also warned: &quot;If some in the Chinese government want to slow down the global economy through disappointing actions and through economic coercion, the Chinese economy will be hurt the most.&quot; Tit-for-tat tariffsTit-for-tat tariffs between the United States and China hit triple-digit levels earlier this year, although Washington and Beijing have since de-escalated tensions. But their truce remains shaky, with Trump previously also threatening to scrap a potential meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping after Beijing announced the rare earth curbs. During their talks in Washington, G7 finance ministers also discussed &quot;the challenges to global economic growth and the need to promote and advance more inter-G7 trade, with particular focus on imbalances and critical minerals,&quot; a statement said.

Business

In early October, China announced fresh controls on export of rare earth technologies; Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and US have raised worries over China's rare earth controls. 

Canadian minister hopeful G7 can lower rare earth reliance on China

WASHINGTON: G7 finance ministers pledged Wednesday to take aim at those who are continuing to step up purchases of Russian oil, since Moscow&#39;s invasion of Ukraine more than three years ago. In a statement after a virtual meeting, officials from the Group of Seven advanced economies &mdash; Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and the United States &mdash; agreed that it is time to &quot;maximize pressure on Russia&#39;s oil exports.&quot; This would hit Moscow&#39;s revenue for the war. &quot;We will target those who are continuing to increase their purchase of Russian oil since the invasion of Ukraine and those who are facilitating circumvention,&quot; the ministers said in a joint statement. Trade measures &nbsp;They added that they agreed on &quot;the importance of trade measures, including tariffs&quot; and import or export bans in efforts to cut off Russian revenues. The countries are also giving &quot;serious consideration to trade measures and other restrictions on countries and entities that are helping finance Russia&#39;s war efforts, including on refined products sourced from Russian oil.&quot; The statement came after the United States indicated last month that it was ready to broaden tariffs targeting buyers of Russian oil if the European Union takes similar moves. President Donald Trump, who dialed in to talks between the United States and EU officials, had raised the possibility of tariffs ranging from 50% to 100% targeting oil buyers such as China and India, according to an official. Pressure from Trump&nbsp;In September, the European Commission also stated that it was considering the potential imposition of tariffs on Russian oil imports into the bloc, in response to pressure from Trump. The US leader has demanded that Europe end energy imports from Moscow before agreeing to move forward with sanctions against Russia. The G7 ministers plan to meet again on the sidelines of the International Monetary Fund&#39;s and World Bank&#39;s annual meetings in Washington this month.

G7 finance ministers pledged to increase pressure on Russia by targeting countries and entities increasing Russian oil purchases, considering tariffs and trade restrictions to reduce Moscow’s war revenues and limit oil export circumvention.

Articles tagged with "G7"

France warns over Caribbean 'instability' as G7 talks open

China and US agree to fresh trade talks

Canadian minister hopeful G7 can lower rare earth reliance on China

G7 ministers to target those increasing Russia oil purchases