friday and meanwhile macron and justin trudeau both harsh critics of president trump's decision to impose tariffs on steel and on they say they will not be intimidated by the united states and warned once again about the dangers of a trade war john hendren has more now from. the gathering of world leaders was supposed to be is celebration but instead of highlighting the global economic expansion the talk at this year's g.'s even summit is all about averting a trade war. the great disruptor donald trump in his america first agenda levying tariffs of twenty five percent on steel and ten percent on aluminum coming from allies in canada mexico and europe the trouble ministration has managed to alienate systematically almost all of the allies who would be involved in this so canada mexico the european union or new additions it's going to be a tense meeting i would imagine canada's prime minister displayed a diplomatic anger and announced retaliatory sanctions somehow this is insulting to

that the idea that the canadian steel that's in military military vehicles in the united states the canadian aluminum that makes your at your fighter jets is somehow now a threat the idea that we are somehow a national security threat to the united states is quite frankly insulting and unacceptable europe's leaders are also irate and threatening sanctions on a litany of iconic american products from levi's jeans to kentucky bourbon to harley davidson motorcycles. all made in the republican staged needs to keep his party in control of congress in this year's midterm elections. at a news conference on thursday french president emmanuel mccrone and signed a joint statement of multi-lateralism a show of unity before an expected confrontation with a unilateralist us president sort of. well in terms of trade i'd like to say to president trump that the measures taken are

counterproductive even for his economy. for me it's a question of principle we can't wait to trade war between friends so we own. going in hamburg when we have the g. twenty we had to be nineteen plus one on the climate u.s. did not want to commit to the power sic remans when you're saying that mr trump doesn't really care perhaps that's the case but nobody lives forever our country's in the commitments we've taken what extend beyond our lives instead of celebrating their usual uni diplomats from seven of the world's largest economies are scrambling for common ground there was consensus under trump's predecessor barack obama on iran and climate change now there's a budding trade war that threatens to turn allies into adversary but some analysts expect a last minute agreement to avert an escalating trade conflict it's mostly done for posturing and because trump sees this as part of his base is

particular the swing voters in midwestern states that got him elected and he wants to show or pretend that he's doing something but again i don't think these tariffs will stick with a family photo of world leaders that traditionally ends the meeting depicts an awkward alliance with the usual show of unity is largely up to the man from washington john hendren al-jazeera quebec city well let's take this on we can speak to joshua meltzer who's a senior fellow in the global economy and development at the brookings institution joins us live now from washington d.c. mr meltzer welcome to the program everybody of course talking up their game are we heading for a trade war or is it just posturing and we will get agreement in the end. we're probably not at a point where we're going to be in a trade war but i think clearly the u.s. has fired the first shot in what might be described as

a skirmish and other countries of going to retaliate and so i think we're certainly at the beginning of what chord laid in something that is more serious and this is back to the war response certainly from from macro untrue and rallying the support of the four other nations that will form the the so-called g. six against the one which is the united states do you think this time it will work that they will sway donald trump i don't think we're going to see any change in the u.s. position coming out of the g. seven and i don't think that any of the g seven leaders expect beck to be the case but i do think what's happening is a recalibration in terms of how these leaders interact with president trump i think they're spend a lot of political capital and time trying to build personal relations with the i'm not criticizing publicly that is frankly not paid dividends for anyone and it's created domestic political costs for i think old ladies and i think they're

recalibrating to be more straightforward and clear with what their concerns are one wonders how this will actually physically play out when these leaders sit around the table and discuss these things and it could become quite heated i think that's right i think certainly there's going to be a lot of frank conversation in private we're not going to see that come out publics so much but the divisions that we saw at the last seven meeting which were paper over to some extent i think are going to be clearer at this time around as well. particularly angry that they're being perceived as a national security threat. yeah so it's clearly going on since there's no national security threat from canada you know this stems from the fact that the administration relied on a particular section in the trade act which allows the president to impose tariffs for national security purposes so they've had to try to justify these measures on national security grounds which you know when it comes to canada or frankly japan and also the e.u.

you know he's not particularly credible what about china important question the relationship the two. absolutely i mean i think that's really the game in town the u.s. has outlined very clearly what it thinks the concerns are with chinese trade and investment practices and this is an issue which frankly i think a lot of the g. seven could mobilize behind it is in that sense going to be a missed opportunity for this administration by focusing on the still an enemy of tyrus and upsetting partners and allies i think they're going to lose the scope to bring allies along on a more unified approach to what is really the kate challenge for the united states which is dealing with the china trade issue just remote so it's great to get your perspective on this appreciate that very much should you from outside talking to from washington d c. prosecutors in guatemala boarded an investigation into the official handling of sunday's volcanic eruption at least ninety nine people are now confirmed to have been killed by the volcano opposition politicians have criticized

the speed of the national disaster agency's reaction to warnings of an imminent eruption of muscle has this report now from the disasters are. trapped in a state of uncertainty the family gathers together to wait for news that their loved ones daughter sons brothers nieces and nephews haven't been seen since the flag over all canines violent a rupture and now more than three days have passed since the deadly explosions and the family is prepared for the worst so what he had on this he say spared going to sixteen people died in the house there will be a brotherhood even went to giving just one single house and. we still haven't heard anything about them. rather than wait for news out of rhode decided to join the search he walked for hours through the disaster zone hoping to get close to his brother's house but the ash was too hot and the house too far up the volcano

alberto was forced to turn back but alvarado isn't the only want to put itself at risk to search for his missing family on tuesday we met others looking for answers in the disaster zone. where this man was searching for his pregnant daughter and given to me. my daughter lived here but nobody has found her that's why we're here struggling to find her her husband of thirteen family members living with them and they're also missing. hundreds of people from the town of san miguel is last days are still missing but what the meters thick layer of ash and mud carpeting much of the town the hope of finding survivors is gone now the question is how to prevent more disasters like this one has demonstrated throughout the movie so many times. there's a lot of folk anik material that is built up we calculate is around fifteen to twenty kilometers with material this material needs to come out and the more material accumulates it will also have to come out this is

a recipient to disaster this tragedy has brought guatemalans together in a country to set by natural disasters uncertainty about the future is one feeling shared by all david mercer al-jazeera a little mango. the red cross says it's pulling seventy one stuff out of yemen because of rising security incidents and threats the a group says that it will lead to the crippling of its lifesaving work that millions of people need aid in yemen the country is also a transit point for thousands of refugees and migrants but as mohamed of our ports many die on the way their voyage started from the port of in some audio on tuesday headed for yemen but they'll smuggle a boat never made it to shore these pictures of survivors believed to be each open were provided by the international organization for migration their boat capsized the day break off the coast of yemen a sports city of aden on wednesday from over one hundred migrants on board nearly

two thirds drowned forty six confirmed dead and sixteen are missing. it's the latest in a series of similar accidents involving african refugees and migrants trying to reach yemen the iowan estimates more than seven thousand people take a dangerous journey every month it says they face difficult conditions and appalling treatment at the hands of people tough because there's an awful lot of abuse of these migrants and they come across they don't necessarily have as many resources as those coming from west africa do but then my of those predating on those who pick them up on the road and take them off to cellars and torture them are doing exactly the same thing they're burning plastic bottles on to their skin getting to call their families back home in ethiopia primarily so they'll send whatever they can and quite often it might be twenty fifty dollars is nothing in january last year three hundred people will fall into the sea by smugglers off human

a southern province of subway in the gulf of aden most of the just pulling out of the report returning to the white house where you can see the u.s. president donald trump and the japanese prime minister shinzo they've been meeting at the white house. summit with north korea at the top the agenda and let's take a listen in to the am greatly honored to welcome my good friend prime minister of japan to the white house over the past sixteen months the prime minister and i have worked closely together to address common challenges which there are many seize opportunities in advance the interests of our nations today we have had another deeply productive and very valuable discussion we have developed not only a strong working relationship over the last year and a half specifically five hundred three days but a great personal friendship i was honored by the tremendous hospitality the prime

minister showed me. when in american allocation went to japan last year was really something very special and we had the prime minister and mrs abi as our guest at mara lago in palm beach the steadfast alliance between japan and the united states is an enduring force of peace and stability in the pacific region and around the world from the beginning of my administration the prime minister and i have been working to expand our cooperation in a range of areas including defense and commerce which is what we discussed today as i prepared to meet next week with kim jong un and i want to bring up the fact that the prime minister and also president moon of south korea were extremely helpful cooperative and did like to see something happen be great for north korea south korea be great for japan the united states in the world our

partnership has been invaluable in reaching this important moment and we will continue to be in very close communication in the weeks ahead including the issue of japanese abductees which i know is of great personal importance to prime minister. i hope the upcoming meeting in singapore represents the beginning of a bright new future for north korea and indeed a bright new future for the world the deed nuclearization of the korean peninsula would usher in a new era of prosperity security and peace for all koreans in north and south and for people everywhere. prime minister abi and i are also working to improve the trading relationship between the united states and japan something we have to do the united states seeks a bilateral deal with japan that is based on the principle of fairness and

reciprocity we're working hard to reduce our trade imbalance which is very substantial remove barriers to u.s. exports and to achieve a fair and mutually beneficial economic partnership and we're on our way prime minister was telling us just moments ago that they're buying billions and billions of dollars of additional products of all kinds military jets airliners from boeing lots of farm products we're going to be doing a lot more business which apparently which is what everybody wants to see there's never been a better time to invest in the united states thanks to our mess of tax cuts historic deregulation a strong trade policy which is just really begun because i will tell you over the years it has been an extraordinarily weak trade policy the opening of american

energy and a return to the rule of law our economy is absolutely booming best it's ever been unemployment is at the lowest level in nearly half a century and for african-american and hispanic american workers unemployment has reached its lowest level ever recorded we welcome and encourage japanese investors to open new plants and factories in the united states and that will happen prime ministers tell me that will happen we want new auto plants going into michigan and pennsylvania and ohio. and many of our states that have them and some that don't and they'll be doing that japan has also remained a critical partner in our efforts to promote a free and open pacific region where sovereign nations uphold the rule of law respect the rights of their neighbors and honor the interests of their people these

core principles allow diverse nations to thrive and prosper all together in one beautiful peaceful atmosphere we're all happy about it that's what's happening now prime minister abi it is a true privilege to work with you my great friend want to thank you for being here at the white house for our meetings today so productive i'm also very proud to say that the bonds between our nations are stronger than ever before and i know that together we could unlock incredible new opportunities achieve remarkable new prosperity and ensure the safety and security of our citizens for a very very long time to come and that's what we intend to do thank you very much that i missed. but i thought mr president i am so grateful to you for this meeting that he will

furtively said great hospitality at such busy time as g seven summits and u.s. north korea summit meetings are upcoming i also would like to express my appreciation to the people of the united states for always warmly welcoming us as your ally. in five days u.s. north korea's summit is to take place first of all i would like to pay my deep respect to the outstanding leadership of president trump as he made this decision that no past presidents were ever able to accomplish in the last eighteen months we really spent many hours to discuss this issue we shall never repeat the past mistakes while this thought is completely

shared between us we are able to witness and historic talk which will take place shortly today with present trump. our discussion was focused on your. issue of north korea. what should we do as we approach that coming are us north korea's i mix as well as for the peace and stability of northeast asia after the summit on this topic we took a good amount of time and carried out. in-depth and candid exchange of views i'm not able to talk about the details of what we discussed. but one thing i can say is that japan and the united states are always together that i strongly hope that this historic summit in singapore be a resounding success there is

a beautiful to put down niigata facing the sea of japan. a mere thirteen yr old girl living there was abducted by north korea. forty five years have passed since then during which time family members single mindedly prayed for her return and kept on waiting their parents became old. remaining time is slipping away it is a long held the desire of the japanese people to have her and all of the days come home so that the parents while they are healthy can embrace the girl and other a better days again in their arms. of course i wish to directly face north korea and talk with them so that abduction

problem be resolved quickly to this end i am determined to take all possible means. so on behalf of the citizens of japan i would like to sign present trump and the people of the united states for their understanding and support toward the resolution of the abduction issue. for. japan will continue to ask for complete implementation of the successive indicted nations security council resolutions there is no change at all for japan's policy to seek a comprehensive solution of the abduction nuclear and missile programs and to realize real peace in the north east asia this is what japan strongly hopes for now

a major step forward is about to be taken. president trump. all about to. make a new history not only japan but the whole international community is strongly looking forward for the united states north korea summit to open doors toward peace and stability of the north east asia north korea abounds with rich natural resources north korea has a diligent to work force if north korea is willing to take steps toward the right direction north korea can see a bright future ahead for itself japan based on the japan north korea appeal and the un declaration is prepared to settle the unfortunate past to normalize our diplomatic relations and to provide economic cooperation japan wishes to play the role as much as possible donald i value highly highly strong commitment to

world peace and prosperity in closing i wish to add that japan stands ready to make every effort to assist to for the success of u.s. north korea summit thank you. appreciate it. so we'll take a few questions if we can start. mr president on the subject i have a question for the prime minister's lot on the subject of north korea how far are you willing to go in terms of economic security political guarantees with him are you willing to move down the road toward normalizing relationships normalizing relations with north korea as the prime minister suggested he was willing to at some point you teased this as well out in the south lawn here last week you said that you might sign a peace deal to end the war where are you with that and and what was in the letter

. well the letter was just a greeting it was really very nice perhaps i can get approval to put it out it was really a very warm letter a very nice letter i appreciated it very much and nothing other then we look forward to seeing you and we look forward to the summit and hopefully some wonderful things will work out so it was really. a very warm very nice we appreciate it i think john that we are going to we're going to have a great success i don't think it will be in one meeting i think it will take longer than that this has been going on for many many decades this is something that should have been solved by other presidents as i've said often before long before this point they waited till the last second. and they should have waited this should have been solved by many others i'm not just saying president obama i'm

saying other presidents long time ago this could have been solved in a lot easier manner. a lot less dangerous manner but it wasn't so i'll solve it and we'll get it done as far as the prime minister is concerned we we will agree and we have agreed that we're going to be helping if the deal is done we're going to be helping north korea we're going to be working with china we're going to be working with south korea president xi of china has been terrific the border has been certainly more clothes than ever before i'd like them to close it a little bit more but it's been more clothes than ever before china has never worked with us this way and you know i give him a lot of credit because as you know we're in a dispute as to the imbalance of trade it's a massive imbalance in china's favorite spend that way for many decades and it should have also been handled by previous presidents but it wasn't so we'll handle that too but i give president xi tremendous credit and i give president moon tremendous credit he really would like to see something happen and they've been

living with the threat of war from their beginning and it doesn't make sense and i really believe that kim jungleland wants to do something i think he wants to see something incredible happen for the people of north korea so we have a lot of great opportunities right down should've waited to this point but we have a lot of great opportunity john cleese in mr president would you be willing to go so far as to normalize relations with north korea and what about the the idea of signing some sort of agreement on the twelfth to end the war well it could be we could sign an agreement as you know that would be a first step it's what happens after the agreement that really is the big point but yes we could absolutely sign an agreement we're looking at it we're talking about it with them we're talking about it with a lot of other people but that could happen but that's really the beginning sounds a little bit strange but that's probably the easy part the hard part remains after

that. normalizing relations is something that i would expect to do i would hope to do whatever things complete we would certainly hope to do that i know that prime minister abi and president moon have told me very strongly that they are going to go and they will help them economically tremendously. japan has a tremendous stake and so do they we on the other hand a very far away we're very very far away but japan will be helping i believe china will be helping economically also and i think china wants to see something very good happen very positive happen and certainly south korea has already stated their their intentions they will be very helpful so there are a lot of good factors lined up for north korea a lot of tremendous factors that give a tremendous potential it has tremendous potential because the people are great and we would certainly like to see normalization yes. prime minister rabin if i could address you as well we know how important an issue the abductees is for you

president trump. said it mar a lago during your last meeting that it's a very important issue for him as well we know about the medium range ballistic missiles did you get an assurance from president trump that he would address both of those in his first meeting with kim. today we had long hours of discussion with present a tramp a good amount of discussion on the issue of abduction i was able to have a detailed a discussion and i think a present a trumpet fully understands of the a situation he supports the position of japan last year present a tramp visited japan on that occasion he met with the families of abductees i told you about the thirteen year old the girl abducted the mother of this girl met with

the prison the tramp and very seriously he'll intently listen to the voices and views of the family members so present trump that amongst the world leaders i think he is one of the the leaders who understands the issue the most the greatest so at the upcoming summit the importance of the abduction would be explained that to mr kim jong un. what about the medium range missiles as i said earlier on in my statement to the security council's resolution must be implemented to all weapons of mass destruction and all ballistic missiles these are the words used in the resolution of the security council in other words the security council resolution must be a completely implemented on this point between japan and us and the international community share the same view i am convinced about it thank you.

deviousness of mystery tional of t b s p s next question please thank you my name is used now from p.b.s. television. i have question for both president trungpa as well as the prime minister. the bit. you have not the use the had the language of applying the largest of pressure on north korea but you who continue to with a high deal with the sanction and the din to the nuclear i had zation he will be asking had the for that and what is the deadline for the day new glamorization and my question to prime minister is how to apply pressure to north korea and the tone of the language are you in full agreement complete agreement that with the united states. president trump has stated that we are implementing sanctions and those sanctions are very strong sanctions he also stated that until north korea takes

the action these sanctions will not be lifted and the jack pattern is in full agreement and japan's position is perfectly in alignment with the united states and in our summit meeting this time we had in-depth discussion with president drom as to how we should respond. to the north korea and asked for hold the future policy on north korea inclusive of for the u.s. north korea summit meeting we have detailed coordination aligning our positions as i have already mentioned japan and the united states are always said together japan and the united states will be in full alignment and to seek success for the historic us north korea summit meeting in singapore. yes thank you very much your maximum pressure is absolutely in effect we don't use the term anymore because.

going into a friendly negotiation perhaps after that negotiation i will be using it again you'll know how well we do in the negotiation if you hear me saying we're going to use maximum pressure you'll know the negotiation did not do well frankly we there's no reason to say it we in the meantime haven't removed any sanctions we have a list of over three hundred massive in some cases sanctions to put on north korea and i've decided to hold that on till we can make a deal because i really believe there's a potential to make a deal and i just don't think it's nice going in under those circumstances but yes the campaign hasn't changed china has continued to hold the border we again would like them to do more in that sense but they've been really good and the president has been very good but maximum sanction is there we are leaving all of the existing sanctions on we have many many sanctions to go but i don't want to use them unless

it's necessary and i don't think it will be necessary but we will soon know. thank you. savior and jetty where sager daily caller thank you mr president i have a question for the prime minister as well mr president under what you've said repeatedly that you are willing to walk away from the negotiations if they don't do well under what exact conditions would you be walking away from that summit and if the summit does go well will you mean inviting north korean leader kim jong il to the united states well the answer is yes to the second part of your question but certainly if it goes well and i think it would be well received i think he would look at it very favorably so i think that could happen. all i can say is i am totally prepared to walk away i did it once before. you have to be able to walk away if you're not going to be able to walk away and we didn't walk away from the

horrible iran deal that was signed and if you look at what's happened since i signed that deal. iran and in all fairness i say it with great respect for the people of iran but iran is acting a lot differently they're no longer looking so much to the mediterranean they no longer look in so much to what's going on in syria what's going on in yemen and lots of other places they are much different country over the last three months and again i say that with hope that maybe something can happen but when you mention sanctions we're putting sanctions on iran the likes of which nobody has ever seen before including frankly north korea that would have been the next phase if we did it or find it necessary to do but nuclear to me is always first and we're going to be fine with respect to a.