US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent cautioned the EU against strengthening ties with Beijing at the expense of its relationship with Washington.
Bessent asserted that the EU would be “cutting its own throat” if it prioritized a closer alliance with China over its connections with the US.
His comments, made on Wednesday, followed Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s call earlier that day for a re-evaluation of the EU’s trade relationship with China. During a diplomatic visit to Asia, Sanchez suggested that closer cooperation with China could benefit the EU, particularly given the uncertainty surrounding US trade policies and President Donald Trump’s recent tariff increases on many trading partners.
“Nobody wins with a trade war. Every country loses,” Sanchez stated.
Bessent defended Trump’s tariff policies and urged allies not to align with Beijing, arguing that China’s trade practices are detrimental to the global economy.
“The economic minister in Spain made some comments this morning, ‘Oh, well, maybe we should align ourselves more with China,’ – that would be cutting your own throat,” Bessent said at a press briefing. “These Chinese exports that the US tariff wall is gonna keep out… the Chinese business model… it never stops. They just keep producing and producing and dumping and dumping.”
Trump announced a 90-day suspension of reciprocal tariffs on 75 countries on Wednesday, after previously imposing duties ranging from 10% to 50% due to what he considered unfair trade imbalances. He also reduced duties to a standard 10% rate for all countries except China. Instead, he increased tariffs on China to 125%, accusing Beijing of escalating the situation after it raised tariffs on US goods to 84%.
“In terms of escalation, unfortunately, the biggest offender in the global trading system is China, and they’re the only country who’s escalated,” Bessent stated.
The Treasury Secretary mentioned that many countries are now seeking negotiations with Washington following the tariff adjustments, noting upcoming discussions with Japan and Vietnam. He also expressed his hope to finalize new trade agreements with US allies to create a united front against what he described as China’s unbalanced trade structure.
China has strongly opposed the tariffs and vowed to challenge them. On Wednesday, the Chinese Finance Ministry described the latest US tariff increases as a “mistake on top of a mistake” that “infringes on China’s legitimate rights and interests and seriously damages the rules-based multilateral trading system.”
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