The statement is a rare remarkable sign of public disagreement within the group of developed nations.
Leaders of the group's member countries meet next week in Quebec and ministers urged the U.S. to abandon the tariffs ahead of the leaders' summit to prevent deeper divisions. Tariffs of 25 per cent on steel imports and 10 per cent on aluminium were imposed on the EU, Canada and Mexico from midnight in Washington on Friday. "So it's not like the trade is imbalanced against the USA favor on this".
United States Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin arrives at a news conference after the G7 Finance Ministers Summit in Whistler, British Columbia, Canada, June 2, 2018.
He says NAFTA has been "a very lousy deal" for the USA and says, "they're our allies but they take advantage of us economically".
On Saturday, a smiling Mr. Mnuchin played down the tension within the room and the tone of the G7's final message. "They're our allies but they take advantage of us economically".
Trump has said the tariffs were necessary in order to protect US national security, but they were widely criticized by foreign leaders, USA business groups, and even some labor groups as being ill-designed and potentially damaging to the US economy.
"These unilateral tariffs, imposed under a false pretext of safeguarding USA national security, are inconsistent with the United States' global trade obligations and WTO rules", Freeland said in a statement.
But Mr Mnuchin dismissed the narrative of "G6 plus one". It was not. It's the G7.
Trump tweeted: "Canada has treated our Agricultural business and Farmers very poorly for a very long period of time".
President Trump on Saturday blasted critics who accused him of starting a trade war, saying the USA has been losing the trade war for years.
French President Emmanuel Macron said in a statement Friday that he told Trump in a phone call that the new USA tariffs on European, Mexican and Canadian goods are illegal and a "mistake".
The president suggested that the country's trade practices prior to his administration was "not Free or Fair Trade", but "Stupid Trade".
Finance ministers from six of the world's largest economies in a rare step expressed "disappointment" over President Donald Trump's unilateral decision to slap tariffs on steel and aluminum on its allies.
"It has been a tense and tough G7", said French finance Minister Bruno Le Maire Saturday. "That Canada could be considered a national security threat to the United States is inconceivable".
Mr. Le Maire said the European Union and the G7 will be looking for clear signals of compromise from the USA over the coming days.
"We see that response as being a way to get us back to the table so the impacts actually don't happen", Mr Morneau said.
"We have important security and foreign policy relationships and although again there were discussions on trade, there were many, many areas that not only we agree on, we were completely united on", he said.