News in Charts: A week of summits

The recent 2025 G7 summit hosted by Canada was overshadowed by mounting tensions in the Middle East following Israeli strikes on Iran that started Friday 13 June. The news has caused a rise in the price of oil with Brent crude up 13%, as well as increased volatility in equities, with the VIX up 23% at the time of writing. The G7 leaders, including US President Trump, made a joint statement urging ‘de-escalation of hostilities’, although they stopped short of calling for a ceasefire.

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As happened the last time Canada hosted the G7, Trump left the summit early, although his departure this time was due to the escalating conflict between Israel and Iran rather than a dispute with his G7 counterparts. Communications between Trump and the other leaders broke down at the 2018 summit over the US administration’s trade policies, with the US having imposed a 25% tariff on steel and a 10% tariff on aluminium, current US tariffs on these products are at 50%. In part due to Trump’s early departure, there was little movement on any bilateral trade talks between the US and other countries at the summit. Japan and the US failed to come to any agreement, but pledged to continue talks. Meanwhile the US president and summit host, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney reported holding constructive talks, although any formal agreement seems some way off. US-Canadian trade has taken a hit both from tariffs implemented by US, counter-tariffs introduced by Canada, as well as Canadian consumers boycotting US products.

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UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer can, however, fly home with a signed trade deal that sees the UK aviation industry spared tariffs, while autos and steel face tariffs of 10% and 25% respectively, both lower than the rates applied to other countries. Out of the G7 countries, the UK is the only one where the US has a trade surplus according to US census bureau data.

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The G7 was not the only summit ‘in town’ this week as Kazakhstan hosted the second China–Central Asia summit, gathering neighbours Tajikistan, the Kyrgyz Republic, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. The first summit hosted in Xi’an in 2023 saw countries reach a number of cooperation initiatives, with ties further strengthened at this year’s summit, with China pledging a non-repayable grant of RMB1.5 billion to the region and the countries signing a ‘Treaty on Permanent Good-Neighborliness and Friendly Cooperation’ as well as a range of other cooperation documents. China has over the years positioned itself as an important trading partner in the region, currently accounting for close to 30% of country imports on average, as well as providing considerable investment through the Belt and Road initiative.

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