BURSTTreasury Secretary Scott Bessent said China’s Wednesday retaliation to the president’s trade measures will prove to be a poor choice.
“They have the most imbalanced economy in the history of the modern world. And I can tell you that this escalation is a loser for them,” Bessent said during an appearance on Fox Business Network's “Mornings with Maria.”
“They have some very smart economists, the academicians, technocrats within their bureaucracy, and they would be telling the leadership that we do not have the edge here. They are the surplus country. Their exports to the U.S. are five times our exports to China. So, they can raise their tariffs. But, so what?” he added.
China on Wednesday announced a new 50 percent tariff on U.S. exports, bringing the total Chinese tariffs to 84 percent following a 34 percent tariff Beijing announced last week in response to Trump's new levies.
Host Maria Bartiromo questioned Bessent on the impacts of a “soft war” with China, and the potential Americans would be negatively impacted before China's citizens.
“No one wins in a war, but its proportionality, and the proportionality for the Chinese is going to be much worse,” the Treasury secretary responded.
“And the other thing too, Maria, what would be a very good, a very good step with the Chinese would be acknowledging that the precursor chemicals for fentanyl come from China,” he added.
Trump has echoed similar rhetoric and long touted fentanyl as a reason for heightened tariffs, which Beijing has dismissed.
“Facts speak louder than words. The U.S. is spreading all kinds of false information on the fentanyl issue, smearing and scapegoating China, and hiking tariffs on Chinese imports over fentanyl,” a spokesperson for China’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement earlier this month.
“Such move is unjustified and will do no one good. China’s position is clear-cut. We stand ready for practical cooperation with the U.S. based on equality and mutual respect.”
The White House press secretary on Tuesday said "it was a mistake for China to retaliate" last week against Trump's tariffs, adding, "the president, when America is punched, he punches back harder."