Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Sunday (August 30, 2026) he will encourage G20 members to re-examine terms of trade with China to shrink global imbalances and press Beijing to rebalance its economy away from exports and toward domestic consumption. U.S.
Tariffs imposed since U.S. Census Bureau data. President Donald Trump returned to office in 2025 have helped cut the U.S. trade deficit with China for the first six months of 2026 by a third from the same period of 2025, to $73.9 billion, according to U.S.
Some acceleration of Chinese imports occurred in January of the year-earlier period as importers tried to beat anticipated tariffs.
Mr. Mr. Bessent’s push to mobilise a coordinated trade response to China comes as legal setbacks force the U.S. to rebuild its tariff policy, which had sharply reduced imports from China but led to an influx of Chinese imports elsewhere, especially to Europe and Latin America.
Bessent said in an interview ahead of a G20 finance leaders meeting that the current flood of exports from China was unsustainable, even though the U.S. direct trade position with China was “rapidly improving. He said it will be up to other countries to give China an incentive to shift away from exports and strengthen its chronically weak domestic demand.
Next U.S.-China summit
Supreme Court struck down broad duties imposed under an emergency law, including 20% on Chinese imports. Trump’s administration in July imposed a 12.5% tariff on Chinese imports under an anti-forced labour trade investigation. The Treasury launched the effort, dubbed Operation Economic Outcast, last week.
The September summit comes as the U.S. has been rebuilding Mr. Trump’s tariffs after the U.S. Mr. It is poised to add more tariffs related to excess industrial capacity under a separate probe. The U.S. Mr.
Treasury chief also said that he planned to hold a bilateral meeting during the Asheville G20 conference with People’s Bank of China Governor Pan Gongsheng, but declined to discuss details. Bessent said he intends to drive the message home to G20 Finance Ministers and central bank governors to cut economic ties to Iran, or face secondary sanctions.
