US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on 9 September that China was the sole G20 member to block a consensus statement addressing excess industrial capacity and restrictions on the trade of rare earths, preventing the adoption of a joint communiqué at the recently concluded G20 finance track meeting in Asheville, North Carolina. The United States, which held the G20 presidency, hosted the gathering.

What Happened at Asheville

Bessent, speaking during a discussion on the state of the US economy, described the finance track meeting as broadly successful, noting that all but one member supported the proposed language. However, G20 communiqués require unanimous agreement to be adopted.

'To issue a communique, it has to be unanimous,' Bessent said. 'I can issue a President statement, and the President's statement said exactly what the communique was gonna say, but there was one holdout in the communique, and it was China.'

He confirmed that a chair's statement — reflecting the presidency's conclusions — was issued in place of the communiqué, carrying identical language on the contested issues.

What the Blocked Statement Addressed

According to Bessent, the proposed document covered two core issues: excess capacity in non-market economies, and the need to keep rare earths freely traded globally. China dominates several stages of the global critical-minerals and rare-earth supply chain — materials essential for electric vehicles, consumer electronics, renewable-energy systems, and advanced defence equipment. India, the United States, and other major economies have actively sought to diversify supplies and reduce dependence on Chinese-controlled supply chains.

'And the rest of the world is waking up,' Bessent said, framing China's lone dissent as a signal to other G20 nations.

US Strategy: Broadening the Coalition

Bessent said Washington intended to deepen cooperation with European countries, Canada, and an expanded group of advanced economies — described as the G7+ — to collectively respond to China's trade practices. 'We wanna work with the Europeans. We wanna work with the Canadians. We wanna work with the G7+,' he said.

He argued that US trade measures had effectively redirected China's subsidised exports away from American markets and toward other economies. 'They are coming back because we're seeing manufacturing jobs in China go down,' Bessent said. 'They're exporting their subsidised goods to the rest of the world, not the US anymore.'

Electric Vehicles and the European Warning

Bessent cited the 100 per cent tariff on Chinese electric vehicles — imposed by President Donald Trump during his first term — as a concrete example of Washington's protective approach. He also pointed to the connected-car rule, which restricts the transfer of vehicle data to China, as a complementary measure. 'That has kept these Chinese vehicles off our streets,' he said.

He contrasted this with Europe's experience, noting that 40 per cent of the vehicles displayed at the Munich Auto Show were Chinese-made. He referenced Volkswagen's plans for large-scale job reductions as evidence of the economic pressure that subsidised Chinese competition was placing on the German automobile industry — a sector that represents a significant share of Germany's broader economy.

Broader Context and What Comes Next

This is not the first time China's trade practices have stalled multilateral consensus. G20 communiqués on trade-related language have faced friction in previous cycles, but Bessent's explicit identification of China as the sole holdout — and his call for a broader coalition — marks a notably direct escalation in US diplomatic framing. Notably, this comes amid intensifying global scrutiny of Chinese industrial subsidies across steel, solar, and electric vehicle sectors.

High-end precision manufacturing jobs, Bessent said, were returning to the United States, which he attributed to the Trump administration's tax, trade, energy, and deregulation policies. 'At the end of the day, it's the private sector that drives jobs,' he said. How the G7+ coalition takes shape — and whether European nations align more formally with the US position — will be a key indicator of whether Washington's strategy gains traction ahead of the next G20 summit.