US Treasury Secretary Bessent says G7 aims to confront China with imbalances data

Paris: US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told Reuters on Tuesday that the Group ⁠of Seven finance leaders' discussions on curbing ⁠global imbalances put a ‌lot of emphasis ​on confronting China with International Monetary Fund data showing the detrimental impact of its massive export push.

Bessent ​said he ⁠had previously warned Western allies that without trade protections, they faced a flood of Chinese exports including ⁠electric ‌vehicles that would damage their economies.

"I had warned the ‌Europeans, and the Australians, and ⁠the British, and the Canadians, and Japan, that the US ‌was going to put ‌up a tariff wall, and ‌these high-end Chinese goods ‌cannot be absorbed by the Global South and they're coming somewhere," Bessent said in an ⁠interview ⁠after the meeting. "And unfortunately, I was right."

Regarding the enforcement of sanctions on Iran, he said European countries needed to take stronger action to close Iranian bank branches, and ​that Asian countries needed to ​better police Iran's ​tanker shadow fleet to prevent the transfer ​of oil to non-sanctioned vessels.