While attempting to reassure anxious investors that the United States will continue to play a leading role in the world economy, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Wednesday delivered scathing criticism of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund’s activities. In an address to the Institute of International Finance, he declared, “America first does not mean America alone,” and he pledged to support the multilateral banks’ fundamental objectives. “To the contrary, it is a call for deeper collaboration and mutual respect among trade partners.”
Bessent stated that the World Bank and the IMF are “falling short,” but he refrained from advocating for the US to leave the organisations, as some conservatives had done in a Heritage Foundation-created Project 2025 plan. The institutions “play vital roles in the international system,” he added. And as long as they can remain loyal to their goals, the Trump administration is excited to collaborate with them.”
Following his comments, reporters questioned Bessent about a Wall Street Journal piece that quoted anonymous persons with knowledge of the situation and said that the massive US tariffs the Republican president has imposed on China may be halved.
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