Washington’s policies alter G20 agenda

The leaders of the G20 meeting on Friday and Saturday in Hamburg, Germany, for what will be the first official face-to-face meeting between United States President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin. That meeting of two hugely controversial personalities will overshadow the work and agenda of the gathering — an agenda that has had to be fine-tuned because of Trump’s non-conformist attitudes to free trade, globalisation and climate change.

Last week, EU leaders belonging to the G20 hammered out a new united stand on climate change, one that still adheres to the principles of the 2015 Paris agreement to lower carbon emissions and greenhouse gases, but also recognising that the US federal government by 2020 will no longer be committed to either those lower goals or the funding promised to developing nations.

The G20 will at least provide the opportunity for China to formalise its position on how it intends to move forward on combatting its emissions. So far, President Xi Jinping remains committed to the Paris goals.

The G20 will offer a chance for Trump and Xi to discuss North Korea and its continued push for developing effective ballistic missiles and a dangerous nuclear programme. Trump believes Beijing isn’t doing enough to influence Pyongyang and his patience is wearing thin. In the months since an April summit between the two leaders in Florida, Trump’s administration has now sold $1.4 billion (Dh5.14 billion) in weaponry to Taiwan and moved a fleet to the South China Sea while also engaging in sabre-rattling over Beijing’s militarisation of shoals there. Japan’s Shinzo Abe will have an intense interest in the outcome of any meetings. Abe too will be looking to the G20 for its new take on continuing to foster free trade and the free movement of goods. One of Trump’s first actions in coming to the White House was to cancel US participation in the Trans Pacific Partnership agreement and he has made it clear that free trade, or anything that resembles it that puts the jobs of his constituents in the rust belt states of US under threat are bad deals.

But it’s not just Japan who will have trade worries. So too Canada and Mexico, where the North America Free Trade Agreement will be ripped up. Trump has targeted Mexican and German cars, Canadian lumber, Chinese steel and Japanese electronic and technology for potential tariffs. What’s clear is that Trump’s domestic policies now face a test of ideologies on the international stage.