{"id":44886,"date":"2025-04-23T21:38:17","date_gmt":"2025-04-23T21:38:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/44886\/"},"modified":"2025-04-23T21:38:17","modified_gmt":"2025-04-23T21:38:17","slug":"bessent-says-imf-and-world-bank-need-reform-says-theres-an-opportunity-for-a-big-deal-with-china","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/44886\/","title":{"rendered":"Bessent says IMF and World Bank need reform, says there’s an ‘opportunity for a big deal’ with China"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent<\/a> leveled harsh criticism at the operations of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund on Wednesday even as he tried to reassure nervous investors<\/a> that the United States would maintain its global leadership role.<\/p>\n

\u201cAmerica first does not mean America alone,\u201d he said in a speech to the Institute of International Finance, where he also promised support for the multilateral banks\u2019 core missions. “To the contrary, it is a call for deeper collaboration and mutual respect among trade partners.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although Bessent said the IMF and the World Bank are \u201cfalling short,\u201d he stopped short of calling for the U.S. to withdraw from the institutions as some conservatives had advocated in a Project 2025<\/a> proposal, created by the Heritage Foundation.<\/p>\n

He said the institutions \u201cserve critical roles in the international system. And the Trump Administration is eager to work with them\u2014so long as they can stay true to their missions.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was the latest example of how Bessent, a former hedge fund manager who keeps a close eye on the financial markets, has tried to calm the economic turmoil<\/a> as President Donald Trump tries to rewire international trade through aggressive tariffs<\/a>.<\/p>\n

After Bessent’s remarks, reporters asked him about a Wall Street Journal article that said the huge U.S. tariffs that the Republican president has levied on China could be cut in half, citing unidentified people familiar with the matter.<\/p>\n

Bessent said: \u201cI\u2019d be surprised if that discussion is happening.” However, he said he expects \u201cthere\u2019d have to be a de-escalation\u201d from Washington and Beijing\u2019s trade confrontation.<\/p>\n

Trump had said on Tuesday that the 145% tariffs on China<\/a> could \u201ccome down substantially.” And then on Wednesday, he told reporters that \u201ceverybody wants to be a part of what we’re doing” and \u201ceveryone’s going to be happy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Later in the day, White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said on Fox News Channel\u2019s \u201cAmerica Reports\u201d that \u201cthere will be no unilateral reduction in tariffs against China.\u201d “The president has made it clear China needs to make a deal with United States of America. And we are optimistic that will happen.”<\/p>\n

Still, Bessent’s speech in Washington represented a broadside against the IMF and the World Bank, which provide loans and other financial support around the world.<\/p>\n

He said the Trump administration \u201cwill leverage U.S. leadership and influence at these institutions and push them to accomplish their important mandates.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some of Bessent’s criticisms echoed the Trump administration’s efforts to root out progressive ideology<\/a> from federal institutions. Bessent said the IMF \u201chas suffered from mission creep\u201d and \u201cdevotes disproportionate time and resources to work on climate change, gender and social issues.\u201d<\/p>\n

Story Continues <\/p>\n

He said there were similar problems at the World Bank, which he said \u201cshould no longer expect blank checks for vapid, buzzword-centric marketing accompanied by half-hearted commitments to reform.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite the criticism, Bessent’s support for the IMF and World Bank came as a relief for development bankers and analysts, who partly expected an announcement of a U.S. withdrawal from the organizations.<\/p>\n

Last October, Jay Shambaugh, former undersecretary for international affairs, alluded to a Project 2025 proposal for the U.S. to pull out of the IMF and World Bank if Donald Trump won the 2024 general election. Shambaugh said at the time<\/a>, that without U.S. leadership, \u201cwe would have less influence and we would weaken these institutions. We cannot afford that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bessent instead, conveyed a message of deepening U.S. involvement with the institutions. But one of the problems, Bessent said, is that China is still treated like a developing country, which gives it more favorable treatment from global institutions. With China as the second-largest economy in the world, he said, \u201cit’s an adult economy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite growing friction between Beijing and Washington, Bessent said \u201cthere is an opportunity for a big deal here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bessent wants the U.S. to boost manufacturing while China increases consumption, making its economy less reliant on flooding the globe with cheap exports. \u201cIf they want to rebalance, let\u2019s do it together,\u201d he said. \u201cThis is an incredible opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n

Beijing said Wednesday that \u201cexerting pressure is not the right way to deal with China and simply will not work.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Associated Press reporters Didi Tang and Michelle Price contributed to this report.<\/p>\n

Fatima Hussein And Chris Megerian, The Associated Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent leveled harsh criticism at the operations of the World Bank and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":44887,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3090],"tags":[51,1395,32,1700,24775,12705,7686,16,15,24774],"class_list":{"0":"post-44886","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-china","10":"tag-donald-trump","11":"tag-economy","12":"tag-global-leadership-role","13":"tag-international-monetary-fund","14":"tag-scott-bessent","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom","17":"tag-world-bank"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114389444643101259","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44886","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44886"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44886\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44887"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44886"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44886"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44886"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}