Trade war: France warns Donald Trump it won't sign a G-7 statement

France has joined Germany to warn President Donald Trump that it won’t sign a joint statement of the Group of 7 at the summit in Quebec this week, a French official in the president’s office said.

President Emmanuel Macron has signaled that progress on tariffs, Iran nuclear agreement and Paris climate accord must be made before he’ll be willing to sign a joint statement, the official told reporters in Ottawa.

The French president spent the day meeting with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and other Canadian officials ahead of the June 8-9 summit in La Malbaie, Quebec.

Macron has concluded that the other members of the G7 — the UK, Germany, Japan, France, Italy and Canada — must stand up to the US over Trump’s decision to impose tariffs on steel and aluminium from the EU, Canada and Mexico.

German industrial orders plunged due to weak demand from domestic and euro zone clients in April, posting their fourth straight drop on the month, as growing uncertainty about a global trade war led companies to scale back investment plans.

The weaker-than-expected data, published by the Federal Statistics Office on Thursday, suggested that the upswing in Europe's largest economy could further lose momentum after its quarterly growth rate halved at the beginning of the year.

Contracts for goods 'Made in Germany' fell by 2.5 per cent on the month in April after a downwardly revised drop of 1.1 per cent the previous month, the data showed.

It was the first time since the financial crisis in 2008 that German industrial orders have fallen for four months in a row.

VP Bank economist Thomas Gitzel pointed to rising uncertainty sparked by US President Donald Trump's decision in March to impose hefty tariffs on steel and aluminium imports.