U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent urged G20 finance ministers to adopt tariffs and other measures to protect their domestic industries from cheap imports. ^[1] Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent stated on Tuesday that 19 of the 20 G20 finance ministers agreed to address streams of cheap exports causing global economic imbalances, while China dissented. ^[2] Bessent stated that China's trade surplus, which reached a record-high $1.2 trillion in 2025, is a barrier to global economic growth. ^[3] Scott Bessent told reporters that he had warned other nations at the beginning of President Donald Trump's second term that the new U.S. tariff wall would mean Chinese goods would flood their markets. ^[4] The U.S. Supreme Court decided in February that the sweeping global tariffs that Trump imposed under an emergency powers law during his second term in office were unconstitutional. ^[5] Scott Bessent described the sentiment that all but one G20 member agreed that non-market-based economies pushing out a never-ending stream of cheap exports is not sustainable. ^[6] Scott Bessent identified the People's Republic of China as the country with the world's largest and unsustainable current account surplus that dissented from the agreement. ^[7] Scott Bessent told reporters that he urged G20 counterparts to adopt the Trump administration's playbook of using tariffs and other measures to crack down on trade imbalances. ^[8]