France wants to get China to agree on the need to address global trade imbalances.
PARIS — French President Emmanuel Macron is set to host a video call between the Group of Seven countries and China to address global trade imbalances, according to four officials from three G7 countries familiar with preparations for the meeting.
Two of the four officials, all of whom were granted anonymity to discuss sensitive diplomatic planning, said the call would take place Thursday ahead of next week’s G7 leaders’ summit in the lakeside resort of Evian-les-Bains.
The call is a notable step for a group of Western democracies that has in recent years taken an increasingly confrontational stance toward China.
But France, which has made tackling economic imbalances a key aim of its G7 presidency this year, has taken a more conciliatory approach when it comes to dealing with China. French officials argue that underinvestment in the European Union and overconsumption in the U.S. as well as Chinese overproduction contributed to the current situation.
At a G7 finance ministers meeting last month, French Finance Minister Roland Lescure said France wanted to move away from “finger-pointing” and engage with all partners, including China.
“Global imbalances … are not sustainable. They’re growing, they’re persistent,” Lescure said at a press conference. “They have to stop.”
President Emmanuel Macron has long sought to engage with the Chinese leader Xi Jinping, visiting China on multiple occasions. And French diplomats have for months been working on getting some sort of Chinese attendance at the upcoming leaders’ summit. Paris initially wanted to organize a “summit of convergences” with China.
U.S. President Donald Trump has in recent weeks tamped down his vitriolic language toward China after returning from a visit to Beijing sanguine about the trading relationship between the world’s two biggest economies.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the possible call, but Trump has confirmed he is attending the G7 leaders summit in Evian.
It is not yet confirmed at what diplomatic level each country will be represented on the call, which is expected to include several leaders, according to two of the officials.
But according to a European Commission official, the French outreach to China is “a good initiative” but within the “wrong format.”
“The G7 is seen as anything but neutral,” the official said. “China would be glad to see the G7 dial down its rhetoric but not at the expense of recognizing that [its overproduction] is a problem.”
Giorgio Leali and Sue Allen contributed to this report.