China's tariff hike unfortunate, US Treasury secretary says

By Gokhan Ergocun

ISTANBUL (AA) - Citing China's tariff hike against the US' reciprocal tariff decision, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said it is unfortunate.

Speaking at Fox Business broadcast on Wednesday after China's announcement on tariffs, Bessent said: "Chinese actually don't want to come and negotiate because they are the worst offenders in the international trading system."

He asserted that China has the most imbalanced economy in the history of the modern world.

"I can tell you that this escalation is a loss for them, they have some very smart economists, academicians, technocrats ... they would be telling the leadership that we do not have the edge here," he stressed.

He said China's exports to the US are five times the US exports to China, adding: "So they can raise their tariffs. But so what?"

China on Wednesday raised additional tariffs on all US imports to 84%, after the US raised reciprocal tariffs on Chinese imports to 104%, effective the same day.