'Level playing field': G7 focus switches to China

Well, surprises could remain in the G7 being held in Bari, Italy this year. On day one the war in Ukraine dominated talks. Today it will be China leaders discussing the world's second largest economy, its trade relationship with the rest of the world and its political relationship to Russian. Sharp focus will be how to protect industries in leaders respective countries while trying to avoid an owl out trade war with Beijing. Our foreign editor, Philip Turrell is covering this summit and we can speak to him now. Hello to you, Philip. What kind of measures are G7 leaders going to be discussing today? Well, hello there, William. This is going to be the second day of discussions, as you were saying, and a pretty complicated day. I think for G7 leaders, what they want to do is to put forward a united approach to China, trying to convey the idea to the Chinese that it's not individual states that bear a grudge against Chinese subsidies for green technology or for Electro vehicles, for example, but it's the whole of the G7. All seven, all G7 nations are worried about the situation in China. They say they want a level playing field with the Chinese, in particular Joe Biden's accused of the Chinese of playing an unfair game with the rest of the world. So that is why they're meeting today to try to hammer out some kind of an agreement. Now what they're upset about is that China is subsidising the manufacture of green technology for vehicles, for example, also for solar panels, which are then going to flood Western markets, meaning that Western companies can't keep up with the cheaper imports coming from China. The United States has already announced it's going to up by 100%. It's taxes on cars coming from China, electric vehicles coming from China. As for the European Union, they're trying to negotiate a 38% increase in import duties on green vehicles from the Chinese. But I think what the message they're trying to convey to the Chinese is, look, we need to get round the table and to sort this out because we can't accept that China is going to unfairly dominate that market. There are a couple of other issues too. There are worries about minerals that are coming out of China that are being restricted, particularly graphite, for example, which is used in modern technology. There's worries that if China restricts the export of those minerals that it will put in jeopardy the manufacture in other countries of modern technology. And of course, Ukraine is also one of the issues on the agenda as far as China is concerned with worry. I think basically that China is continuing to support the Russian economy and also to send in spare parts and drones to Russia, Even though Vladimir Zelensky, at a press conference last night with Joe Biden, said that he had received the word from the Chinese president on his honour that there will be no weapons sent to the Russians to help them in the war in Ukraine. Szalinski saying, well, I hope he won't. We'll have to see what happens in the long run. Yeah, Philip. Events like this often provide a convenient reason for leaders to meet on the sidelines first. President Emmanuel Macron has some important bilateral discussions. What's on his agenda? Well, it's a busy day for the French President. He'll be flying out of Italy tonight. He'd be then going on to the peace conference in Switzerland for Ukraine. So it's pretty time for the French President who got here yesterday. Later on today, he's going to meet be meeting with Pope Francis, who is due to arrive here in Puglia at about 12:30 local time. There will be a meeting this afternoon where the Pope is going to be taking part in a session on artificial intelligence. And that might seem quite a strange issue for the Pope to intervene on. But Pope Francis has been quite outspoken on that issue, saying that he has been victim himself to artificial intelligence and also to images that were falsely created depicting him. And he wants a European or a G7 type of ruling concerning artificial intelligence. And that's why he's going to be pushing for that and meeting this afternoon and of course, talking in bilateral, bilateral head to head with the French President, Emmanuel Macron, who will then be going on to meet with the Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi. He was also here in Italy. At the moment. There will be issues on artificial intelligence, on energy, on trade and on India's role also in the war in Ukraine. So a lot on the agenda today for the French President for for all of the G7 leaders who are here, who will all be meeting in session today with other leaders outside of the G7 who've been invited to take part in these discussions.