Trump goes it alone on trade, climate at tense G20

US President Donald Trump, ahead of a tariffs showdown with China, upended another international forum Saturday by snubbing G20 action to manage trade disputes or the planetary menace of climate change.

After all-night haggling at the summit in Argentina, G20 leaders signed off on a communique whose mere appearance was progress from recent G7 and Asia-Pacific summits, where Trump's objections caused unprecedented breakdowns.

The communique said all other G20 members agreed to implement the "irreversible" Paris Agreement on climate change.

But it also stressed the need to respect different paces of economic development, as developing economies balk at going further on their Paris pledges.

"What you're starting to see is you're seeing a little bit of the coalition fraying," a senior White House official said after the summit, while denouncing the "job-killing" Paris pact.

Trump's opposition defies the international scientific consensus building up to a UN climate summit next week in Poland, and of his own government which issued a report last week warning of an enormous hit to the US economy unless action is taken now.

Nevertheless, the G20 statement said the "United States reiterates its decision to withdraw from the Paris Agreement," mirroring the divergence seen last year when Trump shocked the global community by bucking the consensus at his first G20.

The statement also omitted pledges by the G20 to fight protectionism and uphold multilateral trading rules, which used to be a mainstay of the world's leading economies pre-Trump.

Instead, it merely recognized the "contribution" of the "multilateral trading system," and added that it was "falling short" in goals of growth and job creation.

"The United States, which is the most open economy in the world, does not accept being shackled," the summit's host, Argentinian President Mauricio Macri, told a news conference.

- TALE OF TWO PRESIDENTS -
To that end, the G20 agreed to reform the World Trade Organization, which is accused by Trump of limiting US commercial freedoms to the advantage of China and other rivals.

Trump's determination to plow on with his "America First" agenda stands in contrast to the alliance-building presidency of George H.W. Bush, whose death Friday triggered warm tributes from European leaders at the G20.

Trump said his predecessor's passing would prevent him holding a post-summit news conference, "out of respect" for the Bush family.

It was Trump's second cancellation of the summit after he pulled out of a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, citing Russia's recent naval skirmish with Ukraine, although the two did cross paths at a G20 dinner.

The cancellation means Trump will no longer face press questions over recent developments stemming from a US investigation into whether his presidential campaign colluded with Russia, which has now spread to cover his past business dealings.

Other hotspots such as Ukraine also flared up at the two-day summit, although Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman received an effusive welcome from Putin, showing the de facto ruler still has friends despite the killing of a dissident journalist.

Financial markets, while hoping for a ceasefire to Trump's trade war with China, were also watching Putin and the prince for any sign that the world's two top exporters of crude might cut output to shore up collapsing oil prices.

Putin meanwhile has been forced to defend Russia's seizure of three Ukrainian vessels off Crimea in meetings with counterparts such as German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron.

"The chancellor reiterated her concern about the escalation of the Kerch Strait and her commitment to the freedom of shipping into the Sea of Azov," Merkel's spokesman said after she met Putin Saturday.

The G20 leaders -- whose nations represent four-fifths of the global economy -- heard warnings from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) of worldwide upheaval if Trump continues on his tariff-strewn path.

"The choice is clear," IMF chief Christine Lagarde told the leaders.

"There is an urgent need to de-escalate trade tensions, reverse recent tariff increases, and modernize the rules-based multilateral trade system."

The threat of Britain crashing out of the European Union without a negotiated deal is another potential headwind, the IMF says, as May used the G20 to sell her vision of a "global Britain" after Brexit.

- DINNER DIPLOMACY -
For financial markets, the weekend's main course comes after the summit when Trump is due to sit down to dinner with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Buenos Aires.

Trump, who has already slapped $250 billion in tariffs on China and threatened more to come next month, sounded upbeat about making progress with Xi.

"We're working very hard. If we could make a deal, that would be good," he said on Friday.

The leader of communist China has in turn cast himself as a defender of stable global capitalism, vowing at the G20 to "safeguard multilateralism."

But in a rhetorical olive branch to Trump, Xi pledged at the G20 to do more to open up China's economy.