All national dailies except Mainichi gave top play on Monday to the conclusion on Saturday of the G7 financial ministerial meeting in Whistler, Canada, highlighting the substantial rift that emerged between the U.S. and the six other member states, including Japan, over the import tariffs that the Trump administration has imposed on metal products from selected nations. In the chairman’s statement released upon the conclusion of the meeting, the Canadian government expressed “concern and disappointment” over Washington’s protectionist measures. Nikkei conjectured that the six nations stepped up their criticism of the U.S. since the Trump administration has proposed tariffs in the auto sector, a key industry for Europe and Japan. Mainichi claimed that the six G7 members’ “patience” with the Trump administration’s protectionist orientation is wearing thin.  

In response to the strong rebuke of U.S. trade policy from the six participants, Treasury Secretary Mnuchin stressed that President Trump is focused on “rebalancing our trade relationships.” He dismissed comments from the other G7 officials that with the tariffs the U.S. is circumventing international trade rules and ceding leadership of a global economic and trading system it built after WWII. “I don’t think in any way the U.S. is abandoning its leadership in the global economy,” said the U.S. official.