Bessent says 19 finance ministers agreed ‘cheap exports’ are unsustainable, but China dissented

ASHEVILLE, N.C. (AP) – Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent remarked Tuesday that 19 of the members of the G20 had agreed to address streams of "cheap exports" that cause global economic imbalances, but stated China had dissented.

What happened

Bessent created his comments at the end of a two-day gathering with finance ministers and central bankers where he tried to focus on expansion, telling reporters he had called on some of his G20 counterparts to take a page from the Trump administration's playbook of using tariffs and other measures to crack down on trade imbalances.

"We believe that non-market-based economies pushing out a never-ending stream of cheap exports is not sustainable, " Bessent remarked to journalists, describing the sentiment that all but one G20 member had agreed to.

"It is clear that the country with the world's largest and unsustainable current account surplus, the People's Republic of China, was the dissenter, " Bessent remarked.

The bottom line

In short, bessent says 19 finance ministers agreed cheap exports are unsustainable, but China is the central thread here, and readers can expect follow-up reporting as the picture becomes clearer.