G20 Hamburg 2017

U.S. steel producers told Inside U.S. Trade they believe G20 leaders failed to address overcapacity in a meaningful way at their summit in Hamburg, Germany, last week. At the conclusion of the July 7-8 summit, G20 leaders called on the Global Forum on Steel Excess Capacity, which they created in September 2016, “to fulfill their commitments on enhancing information sharing and cooperation by August 2017, and to rapidly develop concrete policy solutions that reduce steel excess capacity.” Additionally, the...

HAMBURG – German Chancellor Angela Merkel, in concluding this year's G20 summit, said she did not expect discussions with the Trump administration on trade issues to become easier in the future, but added that she hoped the countries could make progress quickly on steel overcapacity – a “dicey” issue – and that the Global Forum would deliver policy solutions in the near future to avoid bilateral trade-restrictive measures on steel, which she did not rule out. “I don't want to...

Correction: This story has been updated to note that British Prime Minister Theresa May triggered Article 50 in March, which officially lays out the process of the UK leaving the European Union. HAMBURG – President Trump, ahead of a bilateral meeting with United Kingdom Prime Minister Theresa May, said on Saturday that the U.S. and UK were working on a “very big” trade agreement – and added that he expected negotiations to be concluded rapidly. “We are working on a...

HAMBURG – After tough negotiations, all members of the G20 – including the United States – have agreed on language for a trade communiqué that calls for “collective solutions” to tackle the global overcapacity issue and includes a call to fight protectionism, sources told Inside U.S. Trade – though the document leaves out controversial language referring to the World Trade Organization as the “multilateral trading system.” “Recognizing the sustained negative impacts on domestic production, trade and workers due to...

HAMBURG -- German Chancellor Angela Merkel today pushed the global forum on steel, which was created by the G20 members at last year's summit and is overseen by the OECD, to work “faster” on tackling the industry's overcapacity problem -- and warned that a lack of successful outcomes in the multilateral sphere would result in trade-restrictive actions, such as the Trump administration's Section 232 investigations. “A lot of G20 members urged the forum to work faster because so far the...

HAMBURG -- Negotiations for a joint statement on trade at the G20 leaders summit are running into similar roadblocks to previous negotiations for communiqués under the Trump presidency, including wording on protectionism and “reciprocal” trade -- which the U.S. administration has pushed for in every joint statement with foreign leaders -- and whether the World Trade Organization would be described as playing a “central role,” sources told Inside U.S. Trade . Sources said the critical questions centered around whether the...

HAMBURG – European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said Friday that the European Union is ready to react quickly and with appropriate countermeasures should a U.S. Section 232 investigation result in quotas or tariffs against imports of European steel. “We're hearing that some are considering imposing restrictions on steel imports in the near future,” Juncker said at a press conference on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Hamburg, without mentioning the U.S. “Should this happen, the EU will know how...

Against the backdrop of what many in the international community see as a U.S. shift toward isolationism, heads of state from several European Union member states as well as leaders of the body's Commission and Council have pledged to stand united against protectionism and in defense of free and fair trade at the upcoming G20 summit, with German Chancellor Angela Merkel stressing that countries should not become “fixated” on the U.S. position. Merkel spoke to reporters on June 29 alongside...