At a contentious summit where the United States stood apart from allies on many issues, including whether to help with the Amazon fires, bring Russia back into the fold and the tariff war with China, U.S. President Donald Trump did agree to support several G-7 initiatives, despite reports that his administration considers them “niche issues.”A senior administration official confirmed to VOA that the Trump administration signed several consensus documents, particularly in the area of gender equality, partnership with Africa, and digital transformation.The United States did not sign on to a $20 million aid offer from the G-7 to help the government of Brazil fight the Amazon rainforest fires.The US stands ready to assist Brazil in efforts to combat fires in the Amazon. We didn’t agree to a G7 initiative that failed to include consultations w/ White House Advisor Ivanka Trump talks to women entrepreneurs, at the demonstration cocoa farm in Adzope, Ivory Coast, April 17, 2019.In supporting the partnership on gender equality, the Trump administration points to its Women’s Global Development andProsperity (W-GDP) Initiative, which seeks to economically empower 50 million women across the developing world by 2025. The initiative is spear-headed by the president’s daughter and adviser, Ivanka Trump.While analysts applaud that Ivanka Trump is continuing a long-standing U.S. policy to support gender equality world-wide, they point out to the fact that women’s economic empowerment is closely tied to reproductive rights, an area where the Trump administration has restrictive policies.While the hope is that G-7 nations will invest in broader measures to advance the status of women and girls, Bigio said that when the U.S. takes up the G-7 presidency next year, “the expectation is that they will only focus on women’s economic empowerment.”The W-GDP has “a narrow focus because we want to make sure that it has tangible results” said a senior Trump administration official. “We want to make sure that it is focused on economic growth. So it does not dive into the important health issues across the developing world,” she added.Economic empowerment is “more politically feasible for this administration than other areas critical to women’s lives like healthcare or protection from violence,” Bigio said.The administration has proposed significant cuts to aid and rolled out restrictive reproductive health policies around the world, including “the global gag rule,” a Reagan administration policy that blocks U.S. federal funding for foreign non-governmental organizations that provide abortion counseling or referrals, advocate to decriminalize abortion, or expand abortion services.All subsequent Republican administrations have enforced the rule and all Democratic administrations have rescinded it. In 2017 Trump expanded it so that even organizations that advocate for abortion with their own money are banned from National security adviser John Bolton talks to reporters about Venezuela, outside the White House, May 1, 2019.In 2018, National Security Advisor John Bolton unveiled “Prosper Africa”, the administration’s strategy on the continent, initially presented as a direct counter to Chinese influence. “Many Africans have really rejected the strategy,” said Devermont. “They felt it was about China. It wasn’t about Africa. The way in which the administration talked about China made it sound like Africans have no agency, that Africans are being hoodwinked, or taken advantage of by the Chinese,” he added.The strategy is now presented as a method of engaging with African leaders and entrepreneurs, with less reference to Beijing.Global impactG-7 statements are not legally binding but they can have an impact on global governance, said Karoline Postel-Vinay, a research professor at the Paris-based institute Sciences Po.Last year the G-7 in Canada produced a joint communique that Trump retracted. “So in that sense, the various statements of this year, constitute a progress in terms of consensus and therefore global impact,” Postel-Vinay added.Several times during this year’s G-7 Trump dismissed that there are divisions with other leaders and highlighted “unity.”According to a senior administration official, these are the consensus documents the U.S. signed on to at the G-7 summit:· G7 Leaders’ Declaration· Declaration on Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment· Biarritz Partnership on Gender Equality· Sahel Partnership Action Plan· Biarritz Declaration for a G7 and Africa Partnership· Promoting Women’s Entrepreneurship in Africa· Digital Transformation in Africa· Transparency in Public Procurement and the Common Fight Against Corruption· Metz Charter on Biodiversity· Biarritz Strategy for an Open, Free, and Secure Digital Transformation participation at the G-7 summit
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