Asheville, North Carolina - With the goal to rebalance the global economy, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said he will soon demand that Group of 20 (G20) nations review their trade policies with China.
"The world cannot have a China with a $1.2 trillion trade surplus," Bessent told Reuters in a statement on Sunday. "The rest of the world is going to have to examine their terms of trade with China."
According to Bessent, Beijing is trying to "export their way" out of economic slowdown. As a result, countries need to pivot towards domestic production rather than an overreliance on imported goods.
The comments came shortly before a conglomeration of G20 finance officials gathered in Asheville, North Carolina, for a summit on Monday.
Bessent is in attendance at the event and gave joint remarks with Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh on Monday morning. His comments laid out roughly the demands he is expected to make of G20 countries.
"Now under President Trump, we are entering a new season of national strength," Bessent said while seated next Warsh on Monday. "Growth is again the north star of our policies at home – and of our leadership on the world stage."
He went on to lay out the US administration's biggest financial reforms, including widespread market deregulation. Most notably, though, he expressed a goal to confront "persistent global imbalances that undermine prosperity."
While Bessent didn't mention China by name, his comments came as a thinly-veiled swipe at Beijing only weeks before President Xi Jinping is due to meet with Trump in Washington DC.
"We have seen how distortive policies that privilege country's own exports have harmed many of the economies represented here today – a durable global economy cannot rest on beggar-thy-neighbor acts that stifle fair, market-based competition."