Bessent says 19 finance ministers agreed 'cheap exports' are
unsustainable, but China dissented
[September 02, 2026] By
FATIMA HUSSEIN and CHRIS RUGABER
ASHEVILLE, N.C. (AP) — Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Tuesday
that 19 of the members of the G20 had agreed to address streams of
“cheap exports” that cause global economic imbalances, but said China
had dissented.
Bessent made his comments at the end of a two-day meeting with finance
ministers and central bankers where he tried to focus on growth, telling
reporters he had urged 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 told reporters.
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 said.
The Trump administration, echoing many economists, has blamed China for
trade imbalances that have left it with a large trade surplus while the
U.S. has a sizable deficit. At the closing press conference Tuesday,
Bessent also previewed the upcoming meeting between President Donald
Trump and China's President Xi Jinping.
He told reporters he had warned other nations at the beginning of Trump
’s second term that the new U.S. “tariff wall” would mean that Chinese
goods would flood their markets.
“And unfortunately, I was right,” Bessent said. “The rest of the world
probably needs to take a hard look at what they should be doing to
protect their citizens’ jobs, their manufacturing base, so that
everything they do doesn’t get offshored.”
Bessent says AI companies must explain themselves better
He also said Trump and Xi would discuss artificial intelligence policy
when they meet later this month, saying more guardrails were needed to
prevent “non-state actors” from building their own models.
The treasury secretary added that he has made the point directly to
industry leaders that AI companies, “whether it is the builders of the
data centers, whether it is the labs themselves, have done a horrendous
job, horrendous job of explaining themselves to the American people.”
“They’re going to have to take some of the blame, and they are going to
have to convince the American people that all the benefits will not
accrue to a small group.”
After the press conference, Trump posted on his social media site that
“very productive and positive conversations were had” during the G20
meetings. He added, "Other Countries should follow our lead.”
The Trump administration's tariff policies have been criticized by
economists and politicians for raising costs for U.S. consumers and, in
many cases, for punishing allies. The Tax Foundation, an independent
think tank, found that the tariffs imposed by the Trump administration
throughout 2025 raised the overall retail price of imported consumer
goods by roughly 7% relative to pre-tariff trends.
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Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent speaks to reporters at the G20
Finance Ministerial in Asheville, N.C., Tuesday, Sept. 1, 2026. (AP
Photo/Gerald Herbert)
 Ultimately, the U.S. Supreme Court
in February decided that the sweeping global tariffs that Trump
imposed under an emergency powers law were unconstitutional. The
Trump administration has been overhauling its approach, and is
eyeing an additional 7.5% tariff on Chinese imports after
investigating alleged excess industrial capacity and forced-labor
regulations.
US and China found some common ground on Iran
Bessent met with his counterparts from China at the summit and said
there was some common ground on Iran, specifically that Iran “cannot
have a nuclear weapon” and that oil and other goods should flow
freely through the Strait of Hormuz, which Iran has restricted.
Bessent has said China's trade surplus, which reached a record-high
$1.2 trillion in 2025, is a barrier to global economic growth — as
well as what he calls excessive regulation.
Global debt has reached a record high of $353 trillion, with the
U.S. debt reaching a record $40 trillion in August. Markets have
been concerned about a sell-off in U.S. government bonds, but
Bessent told reporters, “I don't think we’re in any kind of dire
situation” on bond markets.
Meanwhile, the presence of Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov
continued to agitate attendees of the conference. Siluanov met with
Bessent on Monday on the sidelines of the meeting, but was not
included in the traditional “family photo” of ministers.
Canadian Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne said Russia’s
attendance at the G20 meeting “created a lot of discomfort around
the table, not only from Canada, but from colleagues around the
table.”
“We have made sure our discomfort is being heard by colleagues with
respect to who is in attendance at the meeting,” Champagne said.
The European Commissioner for the Economy, Valdis Dombrovskis, said
during a press conference Tuesday that it is not the time to
“normalize” relations with Russia.
Bessent defended the inclusion of Siluanov, arguing that “if the
sides don’t talk, if we are not engaged, then how can it be solved?”
“I know that some Europeans had a sour taste” about the invitation,
Bessent said. “If both fighters go in a corner, then there will
never be a resolution to this horrible conflict,” he said.
____
Rugaber reported from Washington. Associated Press reporter Rob
Gillies in Toronto and Will Weissert in Washington contributed to
this report.
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