Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent Says It's Up To China To De-Escalate Tariff Wars: ‘They Sell 5 Times More To Us Than We Sell To Them’

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent reportedly said on Monday that China has the responsibility to de-escalate the ongoing tariff war and asserted that its high tariffs are unsustainable.

“I believe that it’s up to China to de-escalate, because they sell five times more to us than we sell to them, and so these 120%, 145% tariffs are unsustainable,” Bessent told CNBC.

Bessent said many countries had approached the U.S. following its sweeping tariff impositions and the subsequent 90-day pause.

“We’ve had many countries come forward and present some very good proposals, and we’re evaluating those,” he said, according to the report. “I would guess that India would be one of the first trade deals we would sign. So watch this space.”

The Treasury Secretary also pointed toward the strengthening of the Euro against the dollar since the tariff wars commenced and said that European countries are likely to be in panic given the strengthening of their currency.

“You’re going to see the [European Central Bank] start cutting rates to try to get the Euro back down,” Bessent stated. “Europeans don’t want a strong euro. We have a strong-dollar policy.”

Recently, the European Central Bank (ECB) slashed its interest rate for the seventh time since June 2024, with the ongoing tariff wars threatening to take a toll on economies.

The deposit rate, the rate through which the Governing Council steers the monetary policy stance, was reduced by 25 basis points to 2.25%. The ECB said that this is based on its updated assessment of the inflation outlook, the dynamics of underlying inflation, and the strength of monetary policy transmission.

The central bank also acknowledged that the euro area economy has been building up some resilience against global shocks; however, the outlook for growth has deteriorated due to rising trade tensions.

Meanwhile, U.S. markets opened in the green on Monday. The SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (SPY), which tracks the S&P 500, traded 0.26% higher while the Invesco QQQ Trust, Series 1 (QQQ) rose 0.19%.

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