The Trump administration won backing from all G20 financial leaders except China’s on Tuesday to act against “non-market” policies and distortions that cause over-reliance on exports and hinder growth elsewhere.
The finance ministers’ meeting clearly focused on China, while Washington used a parallel G20 gathering of industry titans and commerce ministers to make the case for a hands-off approach to AI regulation.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said he had been proven right when he warned other trading partners last year that tougher U.S. tariffs would lead to an influx of Chinese goods diverted to their markets.
“We believe that non-market-based economies pushing out a never-ending stream of cheap exports is not sustainable,” he told a news conference. “I think that the fact that 19 countries did want to address this shows the sheer the enormity of the problem.”
A G20 chair’s statement to conclude the meeting said the participants, except China’s, agreed that countries should eliminate “non-market policies” that exacerbate imbalances.
“In particular, countries with excessive and persistent external surpluses should remove distortions that constrain domestic consumption and that result in an over-reliance on exports for growth,” the statement said.
The two-day meeting of finance chiefs – which saw differences in tone between the U.S. hosts and some European participants – came amid a global bond market selloff on worries over growing debt levels and inflation pressures.
European countries and Canada expressed dismay that Russia, invited by the forum’s U.S. hosts, attended for the first time since it invaded Ukraine in 2022.
Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/china/us-pushes-g20-cut-trade-imbalances-focus-china-2026-09-01
