.jpg?20250521')
Finance leaders from the Group of Seven democracies will strive for a show of unity when they meet this week on topics other than US President Donald Trump’s tariffs, including economic security, Ukraine and artificial intelligence co-operation.
But mostly, they’ll want to keep the powerful Western policy alliance from fracturing, even if it means less-specific language and agreed actions, according to G7 officials and economic diplomacy experts.
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent will join fellow G7 finance ministers and central bank governors for the Tuesday-to-Thursday meeting in the Canadian Rocky Mountain resort town of Banff, Alberta. That puts disagreements over steep new tariffs imposed by Trump at the centre of the discussions.
G7 members Japan, Germany, France and Italy all face a potential doubling of US “reciprocal” duties to 20 per cent or more in early July. Britain negotiated a limited trade deal that leaves it saddled with 10pc US tariffs on most goods, and host Canada is still struggling with Trump’s separate 25pc duty on many exports.
“No one expects this to be a big moment where the US declares that for G7 and other partners there will be a special regime that’s more favourable,” said Charles Lichfield, deputy director of the Atlantic Council’s GeoEconomics Centre in Washington.
But ministers from the other six countries will likely try to tactfully remind Bessent that they are the closest US allies and that it’s difficult for them to meet Washington’s demands that they exert economic pressure on China when they are facing US coercion themselves, Lichfield said.
A Treasury spokesperson said on Sunday that Bessent would seek to get the G7 “back to basics and focused on addressing imbalances and non-market practices in both G7 and non-G7 countries.”
Bessent, a former hedge fund manager, has consistently called for pushback against China’s state-led, export-driven economic model that has fuelled excess production capacity and a flood of subsidised goods into market economies.
In bilateral meetings with Bessent, some of the ministers are expected to further their own negotiations to lower Trump’s tariffs.
Bessent is leading the negotiations with Japan, which has been described by administration officials as being in advanced talks with the US.
&uuid=(email))