China dissented from G20 statement opposing 'cheap exports' flooding market, Bessent says

China was the only Group of 20 member to dissent from a joint statement that "non-market based economies pushing out a never-ending stream of cheap exports is not sustainable," Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Tuesday.

The countries will take action in the coming "days, weeks or months" to "reach a resolution on this unsustainable equilibrium," Bessent said at a press conference following days of meetings with finance ministers and central bankers in Asheville, North Carolina.

Bessent confirmed that China, "the country with the world's largest and unsustainable current account surplus," was the sole dissenter from his chairman's statement.

"I'd hoped to be able to announce a unanimous joint communiqué today," he said, while stressing that the agreement from the 19 other members "shows the sheer the enormity of the problem."

The Treasury Department did not immediately provide a copy of the joint statement. China's U.S. embassy did not immediately respond to CNBC's request for comment on Bessent's remarks.

The presser came as Bessent spearheads the Trump administration's plan to choke off Iran's economy by threatening its business partners with secondary sanctions, dubbed "Operation Economic Outcast."

The effort has raised questions about whether the U.S. would target China, Iran's top trading partner and its top oil buyer by far. The U.S. is in long-term trade talks with Beijing, and Chinese President Xi Jinping is slated to visit the U.S. in late September.

"With China on Iran, we have more in common than we have differences," Bessent said Tuesday.

"China agrees Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon. China agrees that there has to be free maritime trade in the Strait of Hormuz. China gets 50% of its energy from the Gulf," he said.

"So I believe it's up to China, or incumbent upon China, to work toward a solution," Bessent added. "We will see how they follow through."