Note: Egypt is not in the Group of Seven (G7).  U.S. President Trump and Egypt’s President el-Sisi hold bilateral discussions during the final day of the G7 summit.

Because this was the first meeting of the day, the media had multiple questions; almost all unrelated to U.S-Egypt relations. [Video and Transcript Below]

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[Transcript] PRESIDENT TRUMP: Thank you very much. It’s a great honor to be with President El-Sisi, who’s a friend of mine for now a long time, it seems, right? From even before the campaign.

PRESIDENT EL-SISI: Yes.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: We met during the campaign, a little before the campaign. And we got along right away. I didn’t actually ask for an endorsement, but I think if I would’ve asked, I might have gotten it. (Laughter.)

We understood each other very well. He’s a very tough man, I will tell you that. But he’s also a good man, and he’s done a fantastic job in Egypt. Not easy.

So we’ll be talking, today, trade. We’ll be talking military. A lot of things are happening in your part of the world, as usual, unfortunately.

And also, very big things are happening with China. You probably read the breaking news a little while ago that they want to make a deal — they just came out — and they want calm. And that’s a great thing, frankly. And one of the reasons that he’s a great leader — President Xi — and one of the reasons that China is a great country is they understand how life works. And that was just announced.

China called, last night, our top trade people, and said, “Let’s get back to the table.” So, we’ll be getting back to the table. And I think they want to do something. They’ve been hurt very badly, but they understand this is the right thing to do. And I have great respect for it. I have great respect for it. This is a very positive development for the world.

So we’re going to have a further statement on China. We’ll have a news conference a little bit later, unless the media doesn’t want a news conference. If you don’t want one, we’ll cancel it immediately. But assuming you want one, we’ll have a news conference, which I think you might want.

In the meantime, Egypt has made tremendous progress under a great leader’s leadership. It’s what it’s all about. And your staff also, who I’ve gotten to know — fantastic people. So I want to thank you and I want to congratulate you.

PRESIDENT EL-SISI: (As interpreted.) Your Excellency, I thank you very much. It’s, really, a pleasure to have this meeting with you. We enjoy mutual understanding, appreciation, and respect. And this is a marvelous thing that we’re having together.

And as you mentioned, Your Excellency, our relationship started before the campaign, during the campaign, and afterwards. And I’m confident that it is going to last.

We expressed our congratulations in advance, before, and we express our congratulations now, in advance.

There are a lot of issues of mutual interest that we’re going to address in this meeting. And we always enjoy this mutual and deep understanding.

I express my highest respect, thanks, and appreciation, Mr. President.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Thank you very much. One of the things we’ll be discussing — one of the things we’ll be discussing will be trade. And I can’t underestimate or speak more highly of the trade deal we made yesterday with Japan. It’s an incredible — an incredible deal. It’s a massive deal, especially for our agriculture — our farmers, our ranchers — and e-commerce. A big e-commerce component that is very important.

But it’s a fantastic deal. It’s a tremendous deal. It came at a great time. And we’ve been helping the farmers anyway, but it’s something that really has impressed me very much, Mr. President. Our farmers, they don’t want to take. They want to produce. They want to be able to do their work. They don’t want anything for nothing. They’re incredible people. I call them “great American patriots.” And they’ve been really — the job they’re doing is something very special.

So we made a very big deal yesterday with Japan, and it is — it’s one of the biggest trade deals you’ll ever see.

And my only problem, Mr. President, is when we make a really big and really great trade deal, like with Japan yesterday — the media never writes about it. They never write about it. They only like to write about the bad things. And there aren’t too many of them. There aren’t too many of them.

Okay. Do you have anything further to say? Okay, thank you very much.

Q Mr. President, can you tell us about the China call that you referred to? When will the next round of negotiations start? And did you speak to President Xi?

Q Mr. President, can you tell me why the Palestinian Authority has been taken out of the U.S. State Department website? And how is it conducive to the peace —

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Go ahead. What was your question?

Q Mr. President, I asked you: Could you tell us a little bit more about the call you referred to? When will the next round of negotiations with China start?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, we’ve gotten two calls. And very, very good calls. Very productive calls. They mean business. They want to be able to make a deal. It’s very important that — yeah, I think it’s very important for them.

Look, they’ve lost 3 million jobs, and a lot of things have happened. And it’s why President Xi is a great leader. He understands. And it’s going to be great for China. It’s going to be great for the U.S. It’s going to be great for the world. He understands that, and he’s able to do things that other people aren’t able to do.

So, we were called, and we’re going to start very shortly to negotiate, and we’ll see what happens. But I think we’re going to make a deal because they don’t want to lose their chains. They have supply chains that are unbelievably intricate, and people are all leaving and they’re going to other countries, including the United States, by the way. We’re going to get a lot of them too, a percentage. Meaning, we’ll get — I think we’re going to get a higher percentage than a lot of people would think.

So we are going to start talking very seriously, and we’ll see how that goes. We’ve had a lot of good things.

We had other good news yesterday, but I can’t talk to you about that. And, frankly, you people — you called that one totally wrong. You had that one figured as wrong as you can figure it. But we had some other good news yesterday.

Q Are you speaking to President Xi directly?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: I don’t want to say. I can’t comment on that.

Q Do you have any response to Foreign Minister Zarif being here yesterday? Were you surprised that he was here?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: No.

Q And did you talk about — did you meet with him? Did anyone from the U.S. government meet with him?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: No, I don’t want to comment on that. But he was here, and we’ll see what happens with Iran. But you called it wrong in the media last night. I like to at least tell you when you call — and I’ll tell you when you call it right, too, which isn’t too often.

Q Some of your allies, though, are saying that it was disrespectful for Macron to invite Zarif —

PRESIDENT TRUMP: No, just the opposite.

Q — or that it was disrespectful to the U.S.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: No, no, no.

Q You don’t feel that way?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: He asked my approval. President Macron asked my — we have a very good relationship. Look — you know, that’s another thing you got wrong.

I mean, we had — this was the best meeting we’ve had with President Macron, in France. It was straight up — now, we’re not finished yet. We have another, sort of, a day left. We have a lot of meetings, including with the President of Egypt, which I’m looking forward to. And I’m meeting with Angela Merkel in a little while. And we’re meeting with a few others. And we have some very important meetings planned, plus we have some sessions. And then we’ll have a news conference if you so choose.

Q Mr. President —

PRESIDENT TRUMP: But on the Macron — no, no, that was — he spoke to me. He asked me. I said, “If you want to do that, that’s okay.” I don’t consider that disrespectful at all, especially when he asked me for approval.

Q Mr. President, President El-Sisi is an important figure in the U.S. peace —

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Very important.

Q Can you speak about that and whether taking Palestinian Authority out of the State Department’s website list of countries is conducive to that?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, you can ask Mike Pompeo, Secretary of State. And he’s working very, very hard on that situation, and very competently. And if you look and see what’s going on with the Palestinians and with Israel, we’d like to see if we can make a deal. It’s very — it got complicated by the Israeli elections, but we’re going to know who the Prime Minister is going to be fairly soon. It’s happening along. That was a complicating factor.

I think the Palestinians would like to make a deal. As you know, I cut off most funding to the Palestinians — a lot of funding. And I think they’d like to get it back. I think they’d like to make a deal. We’ll see what happens. Nobody has ever done that before. They used to negotiate paying a fortune of money — $750 million. They’d pay, pay, pay. And they’d be treated with disrespect, but they’d keep paying. This went on for years. So I don’t believe in that.

We cut off their funding — a lot of it. And we’ll see what happens. But I think they want to make a deal, the Palestinians. And I think Israel would like to make a deal too.

I think people, after so many years and decades, I think they’re a little tired of fighting. Even he gets tired of fighting. Him, I’m not sure about. I think he always wants to fight.

Q Are you confident that it’s going to be released right after the Israeli election?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Oh, I don’t — you mean the deal?

Q The peace (inaudible).

PRESIDENT TRUMP: No, of course not. It won’t be before the election, I don’t think.

Q No, after. After the election.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: But I think you may see what the deal is before the election. But I — and I think a deal will happen. But everybody says that that’s a deal that can’t be made. They always refer to that deal — Israel and the Palestinians; there’s tremendous hatred for many, many decades. And everybody says that is a deal that cannot be made. So we’ll see if we can make it.

Q When did President Macron tell you he was going to invite the —

PRESIDENT TRUMP: I don’t want to comment on that. But I knew he was coming in and I respected the fact that he was coming in. And he met with President Macron. And Iran has got a very difficult situation. They’re in a position that’s not a very good position from the standpoint of economics. And that’s okay, because we can clear that up very quickly.

I’m looking to have a really good Iran, really strong. We’re not looking for regime change. You’ve seen how that works over the last 20 years. That hasn’t been too good. And we’re looking to make — make Iran rich again. Let’s — let them be rich. Let’s let them do well, if they want, or they can be poor as can be. They can be like they are now.

And I’ll tell you what: I don’t think it’s acceptable, the way they’re being forced to live in Iran. And what we want is very sim- — it’s got to be non-nuclear. It’s got to be non-nuclear. We’re going to talk about ballistic missiles. We’re going to talk about timing. We’re going to talk about the length of the agreement, which, as you know, it expires in a very short period of time.

I mean, the agreement that President Obama made expires in a very short period of time. What kind of agreement is that? He paid $150 billion for a short-term agreement. He’d like to have $150 billion for a short — he’ll do — he’ll do that deal.

Plus, he gave them $1.8 billion in cash. Where’s your finance minister? Finance minister? Which one?

MINISTER SHOUKRY: Not here, but I’ll —

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Okay, explain to him, one hundred — $1.8 billion in cash. Will you take it? Egypt will take it.

Q Mr. President, what’s the next step, then, with Iran, from your perspective?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, we’ll see what happens. You know, it’s all very new. They’re under a lot of financial stress. We put sanctions. Secretary of the Treasury is here right now. And he’s, really, very expert at what he does. And he’s done a very effective job.

They used to say that — look, we are the largest economy, by far, in the world. When I became President, we were heading to be the second largest. China was going to overtake us. Not going to happen. Not going to happen anytime, I’ll tell you, when I’m here. Can’t happen.

We’ve picked up $20 trillion in worth. And China has lost $20-, $25-, $30 trillion in worth. We’re now almost double the size the economy.

If I hadn’t won, our economy now would have been overtaken by China. And all these clowns that are sitting on television that have been running this government for many years, that have been taken to the cleaners by China, they’re all sitting there saying, “Well, I don’t think the President is negotiating properly.” They don’t know what they’re talking about.

I have great respect for the fact that China called; they want to make a deal. I have great respect. And I have great respect for President Xi. And I think we’re going to have a deal because now we’re dealing on proper terms. They understand, and we understand. But that’s a great thing that happened. And they want to get something done. Now, maybe it won’t get done, but this is the first time I’ve seen them where they really do want to make a deal. And I think that’s a very positive step.

Q But with regard to Iran?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: And as far as Iran is concerned, that was with great respect. And I spoke to President Macron yesterday, and I knew everything he was doing, and I approved whatever he was doing. And I thought it was fine. And I think it’s too soon to meet. I didn’t want to meet. I said, “I don’t want to meet right now.” But it’s soon going to be time to meet with Iran, and it’s going to be a great thing for Iran. They have a great potential.

Iran has great potential. And you know who else has great potential? North Korea. Kim Jong Un. And under his leadership, North Korea has great potential. And I don’t think North Korea wants to blow it. Because if they blow it, it won’t be good.

Q You didn’t want to meet with Zarif, but did you send a message to him on Iran at all?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: I don’t want to comment on that. I can’t comment on that.

Q Are you considering French wine tariffs, Mr. President? Is that a possibility?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Am I going to tariff French wine?

Q Yes.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, it depends on the deal we work out on the digital tax.

Q And what’s the status of that, sir?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: We’re negotiating right now.

Q And on Iran, sir, are you willing to waive oil sanctions in order to get Iran to the table?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: I’m not going to tell you what I’m willing to do. But Iran has a chance to really build themselves up and be a very great nation — greater than before. But they have to stop terrorism. That is your number-one nation of terror. Now, not in the last year and half, two years, because they can’t spend like they used to spend.

They took President Obama’s $150 billion and they doled it out to terrorists all over the place. I think they’re going to change. I really do. I believe they have a chance to be a very special nation. I hope that’s true.

Q Mr. President, can you speak about the trade deal with Japan? Many are commenting that the Japanese Prime Minister seemed less enthusiastic than you. Can you ensure that he’s actually onboard with this?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, you have to understand, he’s a friend of mine, one of my closest friends. In this world, he’s one of my closest friends.

They send us millions and millions of cars; they have for many years. They’re essentially not taxed. So they send them in from Japan. They’re essentially not taxed. And my first step with Japan was to say, “You have to move car companies into the United States.” And they did. Many car companies are now operating plants in the United States and building plants in the United States. Because we have had, over the years, a tremendous trade deficit with Japan.

But we have a lot of cards with Japan. Number one is my relationship with Prime Minister Abe. So I don’t think we have to use the cards. But the ultimate card is they send us millions and millions of cars. Essentially, it’s 2.5 percent, but there’s ways of getting around it. Essentially, non-tariff, free. Now, if I won’t to put tariffs on those cars, I’d make so much money for this country, your head would spin.

So, yeah, he’s going to make the deal. I feel pretty certain about that. That’s what I do. We have cards.

That’s a thing people didn’t understand. He knew this a long time ago. We have the cards. We’re the big piggybank that everybody has been robbing for 35 years. We have all the cards. But we never played them because we never had a President that understood this. And we never had an administration or trade negotiators that understood it.

Q Are you planning to eventually take off the 2.5 percent auto tax?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Nobody has ever asked me that question but you. Why would I do that? Tell me. Why?

Okay? Thank you very much. Thank you. We’ll be having a press conference.

END TRANSCRIPT – 9:11 A.M. CEST

The third day of the G7 Summit in Biarritz, France, has more bilateral discussions between U.S. President Donald Trump and international leaders outside the traditional ‘group of seven‘ construct.  The topics of Macron’s selected G7 group discussion include planetary sustainability, climate change, biodiversity, oceanography and aquatic justice.

Additionally, President Trump will be holding bilateral economic meetings with President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi (Egypt) and Prime Minister Narendra Modi (India) from outside the G7; and then German Chancellor Angela Merkel from inside the G7.

At the conclusion of the summit, 9:30am EDT, President Trump will hold a joint press conference with French President Emmanuel Macron where it is likely Macron will exhaust his remaining pre-staged effort to advance the cause of multinational globalism; with customary assistance from rude left-wing American journalists.

♦ 2:30am EDT / 8:30am CEST – THE PRESIDENT participates in a bilateral meeting with President Abdel Fattal al-Sisi of the Arab Republic of Egypt, Biarritz, France

♦ 3:05am EDT / 9:05am CEST – THE PRESIDENT departs the Hotel du Palais en route to the Centre de Congrès Bellevue, Biarritz, France

♦ 3:10am EDT / 9:10am CEST – THE PRESIDENT arrives at the Centre de Congrès Bellevue, Biarritz, France

♦ 3:15am EDT / 9:15am CEST – THE PRESIDENT participates in a bilateral meeting with Chancellor Angela Merkel of the Federal Republic of Germany, Biarritz, France

♦ 4:00am EDT / 10:00am CEST – THE PRESIDENT participates in a G7 working session on climate, biodiversity, and oceans. Biarritz, France

♦ 6:00am EDT / 12:00pm CEST – THE PRESIDENT participates in a bilateral meeting with the Prime Minister Modi the Republic of India. Biarritz, France

♦ 7:00am EDT / 1:00pm CEST – THE PRESIDENT participates in a G7 working lunch on digital transformation, Biarritz, France

♦ 8:45am EDT / 2:45pm CEST – THE PRESIDENT participates in the G7 closing session, Biarritz, France

♦ 9:30am EDT / 3:30pm CEST – THE PRESIDENT participates in a joint press conference with President Emmanuel Macron of the French Republic, Biarritz, France

~ Day Three G7 Concludes ~

♦ 10:35am EST / 4:35pm CEST – THE PRESIDENT and THE FIRST LADY depart Biarritz, France en route to Anglet, France, Biarritz, France

♦ 10:50am EST / 4:50pm CEST – THE PRESIDENT and THE FIRST LADY arrive at Biarritz Airport, Anglet, France

♦ 11:00am EST / 5:00pm CEST – THE PRESIDENT and THE FIRST LADY depart Anglet, France en route to Bordeaux, France. Anglet, France

♦ 11:40pm EST / 5:40pm CEST – THE PRESIDENT and THE FIRST LADY arrive at Bordeaux–Mérignac Airport, Bordeaux, France

♦ 11:50am EST / 5:50pm CEST – THE PRESIDENT and THE FIRST LADY depart Air Force One (C-32) en route to Air Force One, Bordeaux, France

♦ 11:55am EST / 5:55pm CEST – THE PRESIDENT and THE FIRST LADY arrive at Air Force One, Bordeaux, France

♦ 12:05pm EST / 6:05pm CEST – THE PRESIDENT and THE FIRST LADY depart Bordeaux, France en route to Washington, D.C., Bordeaux, France

♦ 8:10pm EDT – THE PRESIDENT and THE FIRST LADY arrive at Joint Base Andrews, Joint Base Andrews

♦ 8:20pm EDT – THE PRESIDENT and THE FIRST LADY depart Joint Base Andrews en route to the White House, Joint Base Andrews

♦ 8:30pm EDT – THE PRESIDENT and THE FIRST LADY arrive at the White House, South Lawn

The traditional G7 Family Photo event took an unusual twist on Sunday as leaders from Africa, India, South America and Australia joined the G7 assembly for the photo and leadership dinner at Hotel du Palais in Biarritz, France.

The backdrop is the grand plage (main beach) at the Hotel du Palais.  The photo-op is the last event available to media before dinner [media were not allowed to the dinner].

In addition to the G7 leaders [Macron, Merkel, Conte, Johnson, Trudeau, Tusk (EU), Abe and Trump] you will note a large delegation from Africa, PM Modi (India), PM Morrison (AU), President Sisi (Egypt) President Piñera (Chile); along with David Malpass (World Bank) and others.

At the end of the video Chilean President Sebastian Piñera along with his wife, Celia Morel, join Mr and Mrs. Macron along with Mr. and Mrs. Trump, on the riser for a set of photographs which seemed to be requested by President Donald Trump.

The structure of the global trade reset is visible.  The China decoupling is underway; the scale of this geopolitical dynamic is incredible.

KORUS  (Korea-US) is in the books; the North American USMCA is complete, pending ratification; the EU has agreed to purchase U.S. beef exports; and effective today the Japan-US deal is agreed in principle (sans auto and industrial products TBD).  Now  President Trump is working on a post-Brexit UK-US bilateral package.

President Trump has single-handily, and purposefully, stalled the global economy and is forcing massive amounts of wealth back into the United States. In essence Titan Trump is engaged in a process of: (a) repatriating wealth (trade policy); (b) blocking exfiltration (main street policy); (c) creating new and modern economic alliances based on reciprocity; and (d) dismantling the post WWII Marshall plan for global trade and one-way tariffs.

Every minute element within this process, no matter how seemingly small, has President Trump’s full attention. He has assignments to many, but he relies upon none.

China and the EU have devalued their currency in an effort to block the impacts from President Trump and the ‘America First’ trade policy.

Because those currencies are pegged against the dollar, the resulting effect is a rising dollar value. The globalist IMF is now blaming President Trump for having a strong economy that forces international competition to devalue their currency.

That’s the stupid hypocrisy of global banking outlooks. They make a decision to devalue their currency, which causes the dollar value to rise, and then turn around and blame the U.S. dollar for being overvalued.  The root cause of the devaluation is unaddressed in their argument.

The EU (specifically Germany and France) and China are trying to retain their global manufacturing position and offset the impact of President Trump’s tariffs by lowering the end value of their exports.

In the bigger picture this is why President Trump is the most transformative economic President in the last 75 years. The post-WWII Marshall Plan was set up to allow Europe and Asia to place tariffs on exported American industrial products. Those tariffs were used by the EU and Japan to rebuild their infrastructure after a devastating war. However, there was never a built in mechanism to end the tariffs…. until President Trump came along and said: “it’s over”!

After about 20 years (+/-), say 1970 to be fair, the EU and Japan received enough money to rebuild. But instead of ending the one-way payment system, Asia and the EU sought to keep going and build their economies larger than the U.S. Additionally, the U.S. was carrying the cost of protecting the EU (via NATO) and Japan with our military. The EU and Japan didn’t need to spend a dime on defense because the U.S. essentially took over that role. But that military role, just like the tariffs, never ended. Again, until Trump.

The U.S. economy was the host for around 50 years of parasitic wealth exfiltration, or as most would say “distribution”. [Note I use the term *exfiltration* because it better highlights that American citizens paid higher prices for stuff, and paid higher taxes within the overall economic scheme, than was needed.]

President Trump is the first and only president who said: “enough”, and prior politicians who didn’t stop the process were “stupid” etc. etc. Obviously, he is 100% correct.

For the past 30 years the U.S. was a sucker to keep letting the process remain in place while we lost our manufacturing base to overseas incentives. The investment process from Wall Street (removal of Glass-Stegal) only made the process much more severe and faster.

As a result Wall Street was now investing in companies whose best bet (higher profit return) was to pour money overseas. This process created the “Rust Belt”, and damn near destroyed the aggregate U.S. manufacturing industry.  This process also decoupled Wall Street multinational corporations from Main Street USA.

Fast forward to 2017 through today, and President Trump is now engaged in a massive and multidimensional effort to re-balance the entire global wealth dynamic.

By putting tariffs on foreign imports he has counterbalanced the never-ending Marshal Plan trade program and demanded renegotiation(s).

Trump’s goal is reciprocity; however, the EU and Asia, specifically China, don’t want to give up a decades-long multi-generational advantage. This is part of the fight.

One could argue that China’s rise happened inside this period, and as a consequence they have no comprehension of an economic history without the institutional advantages.

Beijing has never competed with the U.S. under any terms of equivalence or fairness; they’ve only ever known the advantages. Combine that reality with the Chinese communist mindset and you get the extreme severity of their position.

So yeah, there’s going to be pain – for them; massive economic pain – as the process of reestablishing a fair trading system is rebuilt. This dynamic is the essence of reciprocity that benefits Main Street USA.

Unfortunately, putting ‘America First’ is now also against the interests of the U.S. multinationals on Wall Street; so President Trump has to fight adverse economic opponents on multiple fronts…. and their purchased mercenary army we know as DC politicians.

No-one, ever, could take on all these interests. Think about it… The EU, Asia, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, China, Russia, U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the World Bank, Iran, U.S. Congress, Wall Street, the Big Club, Lobbyists, Hollywood, Corporate Media (foreign and domestic), and the ankle-biters in Never Trump…. All of these financial interests are aligned against Main Street USA and against President Trump.

Name one individual who could take them on simultaneously and still be winning, bigly.

They say he’s one man. They say they have him outnumbered. Yet somehow, as unreal as it seems, he’s the one who appears to have them surrounded.

Incredible.

It does not take a deep geopolitical weed-walker to see the background for inviting the African delegation to the Biarritz summit.  Here we see the the G7 working session group on ‘partnerships with Africa‘:

What we don’t see in this picture is the main reason for the meeting, the 800lb panda in the room. All of these non-G7 members and meeting participants have been previously exposed to the One-Belt One-Road influence of Chinese Chairman Xi Jinping.

Combine World Bank President David Malpass into the equation, a direct U.S. nomination by President Trump now in place; mix in the visibility of Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison; and then recognize the sudden appearance of Sebastian Pinera from Chile and Prime Minister Narendra Modi from India; and the picture of a multi-continental meeting to discuss the potential downstream ramifications of President Trump confronting China becomes visible.

It’s all about the economics folks…

A big expansion from the traditional group of seven.  India, Australia, Asia, Europe, Africa, North America and South America are all represented at the summit today.

Frances’ First Lady Brigitte Macron took the spouses and partners of the G7 Summit leaders on a tour of a traditional Basque village near Biarritz, in the South of France.

First Lady Melania Trump and the entourage visited the Village of Espelette, the flower gardens of Villa Arnaga and the church of Saint-Etienne while their spouses were holding meetings and discussions at the G7 summit.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow discuss the ongoing trade and economic discussions amid the G7 summit in  France.  The G7 was originally formed to address economic issues amid the top industrial economies. President Trump has been trying to return to that focus.

Secretary Mnuchin did a good job knocking back the narrative gnats.

U.S. President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan announced the terms of a new U.S-Japan trade agreement have been reached.  This part of the trade agreement was visible for some time; confirmed today. U.S Ambassador Lighthizer and Japanese Minister Motegi have worked this for a while. [Video and Transcript]

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[Transcript] – PRESIDENT TRUMP: So, thank you very much. We’ve been working on a deal with Japan for a long time. It involves agricultural and it involves e-commerce and many other things. It’s a very big transaction, and we’ve agreed in principle. It’s billions and billions of dollars. Tremendous for the farmers.

And one of the things that Prime Minister Abe has also agreed to is we have excess corn in various parts of our country, with our farmers, because China did not do what they said they were going to do. And Prime Minister Abe, on behalf of Japan, they’re going to be buying all of that corn. And that’s a very big transaction. They’re going to be buying it from our farmers.

So the deal is done in principle. We probably will be signing it around UNGA. It will be around the date of UNGA, which we all look forward to. And we’re very far down the line. We’ve agreed to every point, and now we’re papering it and we’ll be signing it at a formal ceremony.

And I just want to thank Prime Minister Abe and the Japanese people. You’ve been a fantastic friend, and we very much appreciate it. This is a tremendous deal for the United States. It’s a, really, tremendous deal for our farmers and agricultural ranchers, and also involves other things, including, as I said, e-commerce.

So, it’s very big and we look forward to it. And thank you very much.

PRIME MINISTER ABE: (As interpreted.) With regard to the Japan-U.S. trade agreement, a series of intensive negotiations have been conducted between Minister Motegi and Ambassador Lighthizer in line with the Japan-U.S. joint statements on September 26 of last year.

And by now, how we successfully reached consensus with regard to the core elements of both the agricultural and industrial products of our bilateral consultations on August the 23rd. And I certainly welcome this development.

And now, as Mr. President pointed out, next month, at the end of September, both of us are going to attend the U.N. General Assembly. And, on that occasion, I do think that we’ll have the bilateral summit meeting. So we certainly have — we would like to set the goal of signing this Japan-U.S. trade agreement, seizing that opportunity.

We still have some remaining work that has to be done at the working level, namely finalizing the wording of the trade agreement and also finalizing the content of the agreement itself. But we would like to make sure that our teams would accelerate the remaining work for us to achieve this goal of realizing the signing of the agreement on the margins of the U.N. General Assembly at the end of September.

And I’m very happy that both of our teams have been working on the specific issue in a win-win manner, bringing both the benefits to Japan and the United States. And if we are to see the entry into force of this trade agreement, I’m quite sure that there will be the immense positive impact on both the Japanese as well as American economies.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Perhaps you may want to discuss the additional purchase of all of that corn, because we have a tremendous amount right now. And we’ve been working with the farmers and making very, very large payments for the unfair way they were treated by China.

And the farmers are very happy. They like — they like their President. They’re very happy. But I think it’s even better, and I think they’re even happier, when they hear you’re actually buying their products.

So perhaps you could say a couple of words just about the hundreds of millions of dollars of corn — existing corn — that’s there, that you’ll be buying.

PRIME MINISTER ABE: (As interpreted.) So with regard to the potential purchase of American corn, in Japan we are now experiencing inspect pest on some of the agricultural products. And there is a need for us to buy certain amount of agricultural products. And this will be done by the Japanese private sector. That means that Japanese corporations will need to buy additional agricultural products.

And we believe that there is a need for us to implement emergency support measures for the Japanese private sector to have the early purchase of the American corn.

Of course, there is something that is already a shared understanding between — by the Japanese public, Japanese private sector, as well. So that’s why, against such backdrop, I do think that there is a possibility for us to cooperate to address this issue.

And with regard to further details, I would like to continue discussing with you, Mr. President.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: And the Japanese private sector listens to the Japanese public sector very strongly. I’m not sure. It’s a little different than it is in our country perhaps. But they are — they have great respect for the public sector. So when I hear the private sector has agreed to this, we’re very happy about that.

And I’d just like to ask, perhaps, Bob, and your counterpart, if you’d like to say a few words.

AMBASSADOR LIGHTHIZER: Great. Thank you, Mr. President and Prime Minister, and Minister Motegi.

Well, first of all, what we have is an agreement on core principles. It has three parts: agriculture, industrial tariffs, and digital trade. And from our point of view, it is extremely important to our farmers and ranchers and those people who work in the digital space.

We’ll get into the details at another time, but generally, Japanese is our third-largest agricultural market. They import about $14 billion worth of U.S. agricultural products. And this will open up markets to over $7 billion of those products.

In the agriculture area, it will be a major benefit for beef, pork, wheat, dairy products, wine, ethanol, and a variety of other products.

It will lead to substantial reductions in tariffs and non-tariff barriers across the board. And I’ll just give you one example: Japan is, by far, our biggest beef market. We sell over $2 billion worth of beef to Japan. And this allow us to do with lower tariffs and to compete more effectively with people across the board, particularly the TPP countries and Europe.

So it’s very good news for our farmers and ranchers, but it’s also good news for those who work in the digital e-commerce space where it is the gold standard of an international agreement. This is an area that not only has been important to the President but been of particular importance to the Prime Minister.

So we’re very excited about this agreement. We look forward to finishing the additional work and having it be implemented as soon as possible in Japan and the United States.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Would you like to say something?

MINISTER MOTEGI: Thank you very much —

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Thank you.

MINISTER MOTEGI: — Mr. President and Prime Minister Abe.

(As interpreted.) As the Prime Minister mentioned, based on the Japan-U.S. joint statement released by the two leaders on the 26th of September last year, myself and Ambassador Lighthizer had a series of ministerial negotiation on the Japan-U.S. trade agreement.

As we all know, the United States is the largest economy in the world, whereas Japan is also ranked third in terms of the total GDP. And also, among the (inaudible) economies, we are the very first and the second largest economies. And with this milestone of achievements we now have the full concurrence on various issues covering the agricultural, as well as industrial products, and also the digital and e-commerce. And the significance of this achievement cannot be over-emphasized. And I’m very happy to share this important achievement with you.

And on this occasion, myself and Ambassador Lighthizer had a chance to present what we have agreed at the ministerial level, and we successfully both obtained endorsement from President Trump and also Prime Minister Abe.

So the key mission for both myself and Ambassador Lighthizer is to complete the remaining work as soon as possible. Of course, I have my own team, which will focus on completing the remaining work. And I certainly hope that by working hand-in-hand between myself and Ambassador Lighthizer, and also between the Japanese and American teams, we will like to complete the remaining work as soon as possible.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Thank you very much. I appreciate it.

Q Mr. President?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Yes. Go ahead.

Q Will the auto tariffs remain in place? The U.S. tariffs on autos.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Are you talking about with regard to China?

Q Yeah. With regard to Japan.

AMBASSADOR LIGHTHIZER: Well, there are a series — pardon me. There are a series of industrial tariffs that are being reduced. Auto tariffs are not in that group.

Q So they remain?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: It depends. Are you talking about Japan or are you talking China? China is a very different situation.

Q Well, I’d love to hear your answer to both.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, I can tell you — I mean, on China, they remain. On Japan, they stay the same. They’re staying the same.

This is a massive purchase of wheat also, in addition to everything else. This is a very large purchase of wheat, and the very, very large order of corn will go quickly. But importantly, it’s something that wasn’t in the agreement that we may not even — we may do that as a supplementary agreement. But we appreciate that very much. We just agreed to that on the other idea of the door.

So I just appreciate that very much. And we’ll do a great job. And the farmers are very thankful. Thank you very much.

Q Mr. President, on a separate issue, there are reports that the Iranian Foreign Minister is coming to Biarritz. Can you confirm that? Or do you plan to meet with him?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: No comment.

Okay? Thank you very much, everybody.

TRANSCRIPT END

President Trump and Justin from Canada hold a bilateral discussion on the sidelines of the G7 Summit in Biarritz, France.   No-one is exactly sure why Justin from Canada is there; both leaders talked about the USMCA, again; and the media did not have any questions for anyone about Canada. [Video and Transcript Below]

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[Transcript] – PRIME MINISTER TRUDEAU: Well, it’s always a pleasure to sit down with President Trump. We’ve had some good conversations already, particularly on the global economy. The Canadian and American economy are doing well, partially because of the trading relationship we have and the great work we did.

Quite frankly, around the table there’s a lot of people wanting to make trade deals with each other. And we have a deal that we were able to negotiate that’s good for our workers, good for our citizens, good for the middle class. And that’s the kind of thing that we need to see more of around the world.

Always a pleasure to talk about a broad range of global issues. And it’s good to sit down with you.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: So, we’re going to be significantly expanding our trading relationship when the USMCA gets done and completed. Our farmers love it. The unions love it. The workers love it. Manufacturers love it. Everybody likes it. I think most Democrats like it. So, hopefully, that’ll be put to a vote fairly soon.

It’s got tremendous support — both, I believe, Democrat and Republican. It has been signed and finalized, essentially, by Canada and, essentially, by Mexico. So we’re waiting for that from the United States.

And we have — we have really great support. And it’s something — I think it’s a very special agreement. And it replaces NAFTA, which is perhaps the worst trade agreement ever done. Certainly within our country it’s the worst. I can think of one worse, but it’s not within our country, it’s outside of our country, and that’s the WTO. That’s a beauty.

So we’re very happy with the agreement, and I congratulate you. I hope it gets done. I guess we should save the congratulations for when they vote, but hopefully that will be put to a vote pretty soon.

Thank you very much, everybody. Thank you.

END 12:27 P.M. CEST