China's tariff hike unfortunate, US Treasury secretary says

ISTANBUL

Citing China's tariff hike against the US' reciprocal tariff decision, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said it is unfortunate.

Speaking at Fox Business broadcast on Wednesday after China's announcement on tariffs, Bessent said: "Chinese actually don't want to come and negotiate because they are the worst offenders in the international trading system."

He asserted that China has the most imbalanced economy in the history of the modern world.

"I can tell you that this escalation is a loss for them, they have some very smart economists, academicians, technocrats ... they would be telling the leadership that we do not have the edge here," he stressed.

He said China's exports to the US are five times the US exports to China, adding: "So they can raise their tariffs. But so what?"

China on Wednesday raised additional tariffs on all US imports to 84%, after the US raised reciprocal tariffs on Chinese imports to 104%, effective from Thursday.

'Everything on the table'

Bessent said no one wins in a war but it is proportionality, and that the proportionality for the Chinese is going to be much worse.

He also said China does not prevent the selling of precursor chemicals for fentanyl to the US market through North America, adding: "Distributing drugs in China is punishable by death. Why don't they apply the same standards to the people who are exporting these chemicals to the US?"

The Chinese economy is in a recession related to a real estate collapse and it has been going from bad to terrible, Bessent noted.

"If China starts devaluing, ... everyone will have to keep raising their tariffs to offset the devaluation," he stressed.

He also said "everything is on the table," noting that the US is putting in process export controls and talking about capital controls in terms of a blacklist.

Investors should not be investing in funding the Chinese military machine, he added.