G7 finance leaders try to downplay tariff disputes find consensus

BANFF, Alberta - Finance leaders from the Group of Seven industrialized democracies sought on Wednesday to downplay disputes over U.S. President Donald Trumps tariffs and find some common ground to keep the forum viable as they met in the Canadian Rocky Mountains.

Participants said the G7 finance ministers and central bank governors were striving to issue a joint communique covering non-tariff issues, including support for Ukraine, the threat from non-market economic policies of countries including China, and combating financial crimes and drug trafficking.

The finance leaders want to avoid a fracturing of the group similar to the last time Canada hosted the G7 in 2018 during Trumps first term, when his initial steel and aluminum tariffs and U.S. opposition to climate change language made a joint statement impossible.

That meeting, described as the G6 plus one, ended with Canada, Japan, Germany, France, Britain and Italy expressing unanimous concern and disappointment over Trumps tariffs.

Trumps tariffs are far more extensive this time, but G7 sources said there was an effort to find compromise with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.

Italy continues to work so that the final compromise communiqué can be reached. A step we consider crucial, Italian Economy and Finance Minister Giancarlo Giorgetti said in a social media post.

But G7 delegation sources said it remained unclear whether the leaders could agree on joint communique language. One European source said, for example, U.S. officials wanted to delete language describing Russias invasion of Ukraine as illegal from the draft.

Delegates will also discuss a possible lowering of the $60-a-barrel G7 price cap on Russian crude oil.

We expect a thorny discussion on the price cap, one of the officials said.

The EU is pushing to lower the price level as it works on an 18th package of sanctions against Russia aimed at