CANADA/CHINA/TARIFFS/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “The Trump administration showed no sign of backing down from restrictive tariffs in the face of pushback from allies and China over the weekend, isolating the U.S. and complicating the president’s meeting later this week with leaders of Washington’s staunchest partners. Top finance officials from the Group of Seven leading nations met in Canada, where the non-U.S. members issued a public rebuke of Washington’s new steel and aluminum tariffs. Those six—the host Canada, along with France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the U.K.—adopted a formal statement Saturday expressing their ‘unanimous concern and disappointment.’ The following day in China, Beijing said it wouldn’t abide by any agreement to buy more U.S. products without assurances that the U.S. wouldn’t go ahead with plans to hit it with tariffs on $50 billion on Chinese imports. But even with retaliatory moves under way in China as well as in Europe and North America, there was no sign over the weekend that the administration was wary of inching closer to a trade war.”
-Josh Zumbrun and Bob Davis, “Trade Tensions Intensify as Allies Rebuke U.S., Testing Trump Ahead of G-7,” The Wall Street Journal, June 3, 2018 8:02 pm