US Urges G20 Countries to Review Trade Terms with China

United States (US) Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has said he will urge G20 member countries to review their trade terms with China.

The review, according to Bessent, is necessary to reduce global imbalances and to press Beijing to rebalance its economy, shifting away from export dependence towards domestic consumption.

In an interview ahead of the G20 finance ministers’ meeting, as reported by Reuters on Monday (31/8/2026), Bessent said that the current surge in exports from China is unsustainable, even though the US’s direct trade position with China is ‘improving rapidly’.

‘The world cannot allow China to have a trade surplus of US$1.2 trillion (equivalent to Rp21,292 trillion),’ Bessent said in his statement.

‘In China, the economy is quite weak, and they are trying to address it through exports, and they need to rebalance their economy,’ he said.

The G20 is the premier international forum, comprising 20 countries with the world’s largest advanced and emerging economies, for discussing global economic and financial issues.

Bessent’s effort to galvanise a coordinated trade response to China comes amid legal hurdles that have forced the US to restructure its tariff policies.

Previous US tariff policies have sharply reduced imports from China, but have also triggered a surge in imports of Chinese products in other regions, particularly Europe and Latin America.

The US has restricted access for various Chinese products into its economy through the imposition of high tariffs and outright bans on a number of products, including motor vehicles.

Bessent said that last year he had warned other industrialised countries about the pressure from the surge in imports from China. ‘Now they are faced with very difficult choices,’ he said.

Furthermore, Bessent assessed that the move to provide incentives for China to shift away from export dependence and strengthen domestic demand, which has remained persistently weak, depends on other countries.

‘Other countries in the world must review their trade terms with China,’ the US Treasury Secretary stressed.

The US is pushing for a joint G20 statement on reducing trade and current account imbalances. The Chinese Embassy in Washington has not yet commented on the effort.