The Group of Seven industrial democracies continue to be united but tensions among them remain around the tariffs being imposed by the U.S., Canada’s Finance Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne said on Thursday.
Canada, which is chairing the G7 this year, needs to fight against the U.S. tariffs, which are still affecting a large portion of Canadian goods, Champagne told a press briefing about the meeting on Thursday of G7 finance ministers in Washington.
“Every G7 economy understands that this is the moment to invest. We’re facing an existential crisis,” said Champagne, who was named finance minister by Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney on March 14.
Champagne said he was unable to schedule a bilateral meeting to discuss tariffs with U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, but that he had interactions with Bessent during the G7 and G20 meetings held on the sidelines of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank spring meetings in Washington.
U.S. President Donald Trump has slapped Canada, the largest U.S. export customer, with 25% tariffs on autos, steel and aluminum, along with goods that do not comply with the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement’s rules of origin. The action has already prompted layoffs at Canadian factories.
Champagne said he would have more information about Ottawa’s negotiations with Washington after the Canadian national election on Monday is concluded, assuming Prime Minister Mark Carney’s ruling Liberal Party is reelected.
The G7 ministers discussed support for Ukraine and heard a presentation on the country’s economic situation from Ukrainian Finance Minister Sergii Marchenko, Champagne said, including the $524 billion in reconstruction needs estimated by the World Bank.
“There’s an understanding that there ought to be a role for the private sector,” he said.
Champagne said he invited Marchenko to attend a May 20-22 G7 finance leaders meeting in Banff, Alberta, where the group will discuss the disposition of some $300 billion in frozen Russian assets as European officials discuss a full seizure to help bankroll Ukraine’s survival in the face of dwindling U.S. resources.
The Canadian finance minister declined to discuss Bessent’s comments on Ukraine during the meeting, but said that he was pleased the U.S. Treasury chief had expressed U.S. support for the IMF and World Bank on Wednesday and said that anyone who helps finance or supply Russia’s war effort in Ukraine should be denied a role in the country’s reconstruction.
(Reporting by David Lawder and Dan Burns; Editing by Andrea Ricci and Paul Simao)