United States

Withdrawing from the Iran nuclear agreement, Trump-Trudeau conflict at the G7 summit, and imposing tariffs

Trump fulfilled another campaign promise and dissolved one of the landmark foreign policy achievements of the Obama administration on May 8, 2018, when he announced that he was withdrawing the U.S. from the P5+1 (China, France, Russia, the U.K., and the U.S. plus Germany) nuclear deal with Iran. “It is clear to me that we cannot prevent an Iranian nuclear bomb under the decaying and rotten structure of the current agreement,” Trump said, while promising to reimpose “the highest level of economic sanctions” on Iran. The other signatories of the agreement remained committed to it.

Trump’s decision in the matter was reflective of his growing willingness to impose policies that isolated the United States from its traditional allies. He had come into office promising to pull the U.S. out of NAFTA if Canada and Mexico did not renegotiate the agreement; in August 2017, representatives from the three countries began formal discussions on revamping the historic deal. In May 2018 Trump announced his intention to impose tariffs on steel and aluminum imports from Canada, Mexico, and the EU, claiming that the tariffs were necessary to protect U.S. industries as a matter of national security. At a summit in Quebec in June, Trump was at odds with the other Group of Seven (G7) leaders over a variety of issues but especially trade. Although the U.S. president initially supported the communiqué that the leaders issued at the end of the meetings, Trump took umbrage at Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s statement at a post-summit news conference that, if necessary, Canada would institute counter-tariffs and would not be “pushed around” by the United States. Relations had become strained between the two countries with the “world’s longest undefended border.”

Tariffs on steel and aluminum were also to be imposed on China, but that action proved to be only the opening salvo in a trade war that the Trump administration unleashed on the Asian economic giant. Trump had long argued that China was taking advantage of the United States in trade. Determined to reduce the U.S. trade deficit with China and arguing that Chinese infringement of the intellectual property of American businesses and undercutting of American producers was a threat to U.S. national security, Trump, by July, had instituted tariffs on some $34 billion worth of Chinese goods, prompting China to respond in kind.