Commentary, key themes and views: G7 and Brexit in focus - ANZ

Analysts at ANZ summed up the key themes and views with the following commentary.

Key Quotes:

Oh to have been a fly on the wall:

"With trade at the top of the agenda, the weekend’s G7 meeting was always going to be a tense affair, and it looks as though it lived up to those expectations. In keeping with his ‘keep them guessing’ style, Trump actually started the meeting by endorsing completely free trade, stating “no tariffs, no barriers, that’s the way it should be, and no subsidies”. But it looks as though it was just his way of highlighting what he perceives as the unfair policies of others. Now the leaders did manage to agree to the wording of a final communique, and if that was the intention of the summit then I suppose you could say it was a success. However, any ‘truce’ on trade (if you want to call it that) did not last long. It only took a few hours before Trump (via tweet) was calling Canadian’s PM dishonest and informing “our US Reps not to endorse the Communique as we look at Tariffs on automobiles flooding the US Market!”. Trade uncertainty is going to linger as a source of market angst for some time it appears.

A long way to go yet:

The EU’s chief Brexit negotiator, Michael Barnier, cast doubt on the transition plan tabled by UK PM May on Thursday. Barnier rejected the idea that the Irish backstop can apply to all of the UK. He also objected to the idea that there should be a time limit on the time given to resolving the Irish border issue – a requirement for those wanting a harder Brexit within the UK Cabinet. Overall, the comments illustrate that the two parties are still far apart ahead of the next round of negotiations."