US expects support from India, others amid China tensions: Treasury Secy

Scott Bessent's remarks come days after US President Donald Trump announced plans to impose an additional 100 per cent tariffs on China, starting November 1

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent recently said that Washington expected support from India and its allies at a time when tensions were escalating between the US and China.

 

In an interview with Fox News Business, Bessent said that it was China versus the world, adding that they had added a bazooka to the supply chains and the industrial base of the entire free world.

 

Bessent further said, "China is a command-and-control economy. They are neither going to command nor control us. We are going to assert our sovereignty in various ways".

 

US seeks support from allies: Bessent

 

Elaborating further, Bessent said that Washington was already in touch with its allies. "We will be meeting with them this week and, you know, I expect that we will get substantial global support from the Europeans, from Indians, from the democracies in Asia", he told Fox News Business.

 

 

The US Treasury Secretary also warned that the adversary was making provocative moves, and while Washington was pushing for peace in the world, China was financing war.

 

Here's what has happened so far

 

Bessent's remarks come days after US President Donald Trump announced plans to impose an additional 100 per cent tariffs on China, starting November 1. Defending his decision, Trump said that the move was prompted by reports suggesting that China was now planning to expand its export control to nearly all its products, including rare earth minerals, critical to global technology supply chains.

 

Slamming Beijing, Trump, in a Truth Social post, called China's decision a "moral disgrace" and said the country had taken an "extraordinarily aggressive" stance by sending out a hostile letter to the world.

 

Currently, the US has imposed a 55 per cent tariff on Chinese goods. However, if implemented, the new US tariffs would increase total import duties on Chinese products to nearly 130 per cent, close to levels announced earlier in April.

 

Accusing the US of practicing "double standards", China's Ministry of Commerce, in a statement, said that threatening high tariffs is not the right approach to engage with China, and in retaliation, Beijing announced export curbs on rare earth minerals and related technologies, citing national security.

 

After China retaliated, Trump seemed to soften his stance. On October 12 (local time), in a post on Truth Social, he wrote that he wished to help China and did not want a depression for their country.

 

On Tuesday (local time), the South China Morning Post reported that Beijing and Washington were holding "working-level talks," under a bilateral economic and trade consultation mechanism established earlier this year. While Washington claimed that they were caught off guard by these export curbs, Beijing clarified that the US had been notified in advance.

 

US-India ties

 

Bessent's remarks come as Washington and New Delhi are also trying to resolve their trade tensions, which escalated in July, after Trump marginally reduced India's tariff to 25 per cent, from the originally announced 26 per cent in April. In addition, New Delhi was slapped with an additional 25 per cent tariffs for its continued purchase of Russian oil, bringing India's total to 50 per cent, the highest in the world, alongside Brazil.

 

Despite China being the largest Russian oil buyer, Washington singled out India and accused it of fuelling the Russian President Vladimir Putin's war in Ukraine, which is now in its fourth year.

 

Earlier this week, a Bloomberg report, citing a government official, said that a trade delegation will visit the US this week as the two countries try to achieve a deal before the fall deadline.