US pushes G20 to cut trade imbalances and focus on China’s $1.2 trillion surplus

The US is using its turn in the G20 driver’s seat to do something Washington has tried for years: get the rest of the world to collectively tell China its trade surplus is too large. At the G20 finance ministers and central bank governors meeting in Asheville, North Carolina, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent made the case bluntly. The world, he argued, simply cannot tolerate a $1.2 trillion goods trade surplus from a single country.

That country, of course, is China. And the timing of the push is no accident, with a Xi Jinping-Donald Trump summit scheduled for September 24, giving Washington roughly three weeks to build multilateral leverage before sitting down one-on-one with Beijing.

The numbers behind the pressure campaign

China’s global goods surplus hit roughly $1.2 trillion in 2025, a figure that has become a central talking point for US officials trying to frame the issue as everyone’s problem, not just America’s.

On the bilateral front, US tariffs appear to be doing some of the heavy lifting already. The US goods trade deficit with China fell to approximately $73.9 billion in the first half of 2026, a reduction of about one-third compared to the same period a year earlier.

China’s overall export machine hasn’t slowed down. It’s sped up. Chinese exports grew 23.9% year-on-year in July 2026, suggesting that goods originally bound for American ports are simply finding new destinations. Europe and Latin America have absorbed much of the rerouted trade flow, which partly explains why Bessent wants this to be a group conversation rather than a bilateral one.

G20 dynamics and the communique fight

The US holds the G20 presidency in 2026, which gives it agenda-setting power at gatherings like the Asheville meeting, held August 31 through September 1. Washington has been pushing for a joint statement explicitly calling for a reduction in global trade imbalances, language that would effectively single out China without naming it directly.

Predictably, Beijing hasn’t been enthusiastic about signing on to that framing. Chinese representatives have pushed back on the trade balance terminology, questioning whether surplus countries alone should bear the burden of adjustment.

The European Union has tried to position itself somewhere in the middle. EU figures, including Valdis Dombrovskis, have indicated that responsibilities for rebalancing should be shared.

Why China’s surplus keeps growing

The root of China’s enormous trade surplus is less about cunning mercantilist policy than it is about a fundamental economic imbalance. Chinese domestic consumption remains relatively weak compared to the country’s manufacturing output. The tariffs implemented since Trump’s return to office in 2025 have clearly altered bilateral trade patterns. But the 23.9% export growth figure from July tells a more complicated story, with Chinese manufacturers finding alternative markets and many products flowing through intermediary countries.

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