The disagreement emerged during negotiations in Asheville, North Carolina, over language addressing global economic imbalances. People familiar with the talks said the sharpest argument focused on whether the G20 should describe certain policies and practices as “non-market”, wording Washington regarded as essential and Beijing opposed because it viewed the formulation as unfairly targeting China’s economic model.
The meeting ended on Tuesday without a joint communiqué, which requires consensus. The United States, as the 2026 G20 chair, instead issued a chair’s statement recording agreement among all members except China on several contested passages.
The statement said countries should take steps to eliminate “non-market policies and practices” that worsen imbalances. It also said economies with excessive and persistent external surpluses should remove distortions that constrain domestic consumption and create overreliance on exports for growth.
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said after the meeting that China was the sole dissenter on the central trade language. He argued that economies relying on state-directed policies and large volumes of low-priced exports were creating harmful spillovers for trading partners and weakening growth elsewhere.
Bessent said the support of the other 19 G20 members demonstrated concern about the issue. He identified China as the country with the world’s largest current-account surplus and described that position as unsustainable, while urging other governments to consider measures to protect jobs and manufacturing capacity from diverted Chinese exports.
China rejected that framing. Foreign Ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun said on Wednesday that Beijing “deeply regrets” the failure to issue a joint statement and called on the United States and other members to conduct G20 coordination objectively, fairly and on the basis of equal consultation.
Guo said China had participated actively and constructively in the G20 process and urged Washington, as rotating chair, to respect the legitimate concerns of all members before the leaders’ summit in Miami later this year.
China’s central bank also argued that global imbalances cannot be attributed solely to surplus economies. People’s Bank of China Governor Pan Gongsheng said deficit countries should reduce fiscal deficits and increase domestic savings, while surplus countries should appropriately support consumption and investment.
The US chair’s statement reflected that broader balance by also calling on countries with persistent external deficits to pursue policies supporting domestic savings and fiscal consolidation. It said failure to adjust policies on either side could undermine global growth and resilience.
The dispute over “non-market” language was not the only point of friction. China also objected to parts of the text concerning global imbalances, International Monetary Fund surveillance, sovereign debt restructuring and language related to supply chains and navigation through the Strait of Hormuz, according to the US Treasury’s account of the negotiations.
Still, the trade wording carried particular weight because Washington had made global imbalances one of the central themes of the Asheville gathering. Bessent told ministers that tougher US tariffs had redirected Chinese goods towards other markets and said governments should assess the consequences for domestic industries.
Japan separately raised concerns about restrictions on critical mineral exports. Finance Minister Satsuki Katayama told counterparts that arbitrary curbs on essential minerals could damage the global economy and should be withdrawn, adding another trade-related concern to negotiations already strained by differences over China.
IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said after the meeting that finance chiefs showed strong convergence on the need to raise potential growth and stressed that international cooperation remained important for managing debt, limiting cross-border spillovers and addressing global imbalances.
The final chair’s statement asked the IMF to strengthen analysis of the macroeconomic drivers of imbalances and distortive policies, including more detailed scenario work and improved data. It also invited the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development to contribute analysis of structural causes.
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