Bessent Faces Heat at G20 Summit Over Tariffs and Russia Invite

At the G20 finance summit in Asheville, North Carolina, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent faced a backdrop of turmoil. The US had just launched strikes on Iran and imposed tariffs on Canada, pushing bond markets to record highs.

The Europeans were also upset with Bessent's decision to invite Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov to the summit, despite Moscow being shut out of G20 events since Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

German Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil defended the joint approach that led to the 'family photo' taking place without Siluanov and the Russian delegation. Bessent also faced criticism for his handling of a $40 billion tariff fight with Canada, whose Prime Minister Mark Carney accused the Trump administration of 'doing memes' instead of serious negotiations.

Bessent mocked Canada's economic size, saying 'I don't think you can be in a tit-for-tat with someone who's 13 times larger than you are.'

Despite the turmoil, Bessent made the case that America was setting the pace for the global economy. He urged other countries to 'come with us and grow', arguing that growth was the answer to the mountain of debt confronting the global economy.