The White House said Monday that President Trump achieved many of his goals at the G-20 summit in Germany, pushing back on media reports that highlighted divisions over climate policy and criticism that Mr. Trump didn’t show leadership.
Senior administration officials said the communiqué agreed to by all 20 leaders of the world’s largest economies reflected Mr. Trump’s priorities on trade, energy security, humanitarian aid and women’s entrepreneurship.
“There’s a lot of support in the international community for the president’s vision,” a senior administration official said. “It demonstrates the ability to talk about these issues in a frank way” and to marshal support from other leaders.
The communiqué included commitments to address global excess steel capacity, with a call by all nations to end “market-distorting subsidies.” The G20 committed to speed up development of the Global Forum on Steel Excess Capacity and to produce an action plan by November.
“That is a very strong statement by the G20 … that has not really been appreciated in some of the mainstream media,” the official said.
The Trump administration is conducting an investigation into steel dumping and could impose penalties on illegal steel imports.
The G-20 also announced a $325 million fund to support female entrepreneurship in developing countries, an initiative that Mr. Trump said would help the world economy to grow and lift millions of people out of poverty.
On climate, the U.S. was the lone holdout on a call to move ahead with full implementation of the Paris climate accord to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The U.S. said in the statement that it would work closely with other countries to help them access “fossil fuels more cleanly and efficiently” — a reference to Mr. Trump’s goal of boosting U.S. gas exports, such as the initial shipment last month of liquefied natural gas to a terminal in Poland.
The senior administration official said Mr. Trump’s “message on energy security and sustainability really came through” in commitments to promoting the use of energy technologies to address climate issues.
“There’s a balance there between environment and climate action with economic development and energy security, which I think is vital for a number of countries, particularly developing nations,” the official said.
• Dave Boyer can be reached at dboyer@washingtontimes.com.
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