First of all, I want to thank the

phenomenal staff the here at the Grove

Park in we've had an incredible few days

and they have made sure that the uh that

this G20 is certainly one of the best

international events that I've ever been

to. So, a a big thank you to the the

staff of the Grove Park. [applause]

And over the past few days, we've

convened policy makers and private

sector leaders from around the g globe

around a common conviction that stronger

economic growth is not only possible but

necessary.

I want to thank my fellow finance

ministers, central bank governors for

their robust engagement. I'd also like

to thank the business leaders who

contributed to our discussion and

everyone who made this ministerial

a success. Every discussion brought us

back to the same conclusion. Growth is a

condition upon which durable prosperity

depends. And with America once again

leading this forum, the days of settling

for subpar growth are over. The

discussions we've had here this week

leave me confident that many of our

partners are now prepared to join us.

First, we've heard from many countries

about reforms that have removed

impediments to growth and supported

greater private sector investment and

innovation. Of course, no two economies

are identical, but we can learn from one

another how governments can create the

conditions for businesses,

entrepreneurs, and workers to thrive.

Insights from one economy can lead to

reforms in another, and the exchanges

we've had here will surely increase

economic growth. Our discussions also

underscored that delivering growth

depends on the abundance of our

resources and resilience of our supply

chains, particularly for energy and

other critical inputs that power our

economies. President Trump's push for

American energy dominance has never

looked better.

Second, we solicited inputs for the

first time ever from the private sector

to better understand how our efforts can

reinforce theirs. For the first time in

G20 history, business leaders joined

ministers and central bank governors to

discuss the practical barriers they

encounter as they invest, innovate, and

grow.

We also heard clearly how smart rules

can preserve confidence without

paralyzing initiative. The conversations

we had here in Nashville should serve as

a model for deeper engagement between

policymakers and the private sector

going forward. Third, we had a candid

discussion about excessive and

persistent imbalances that threaten

global prosperity. We've called for

stronger analysis to better identify the

policies that contribute to these

imbalances and distort fair competition

and hurt workers around the world.

Fourth, we continued our work on

sovereign debt. Debt distress can

prevent companies from investing in

their people and their futures. We set

the stage for important further work to

make sovereign debt restructurings in

emerging markets faster, more

transparent, and more predictable. And

finally, we turn from financial strength

of our economies to the financial

literacy of ouri citizens. Across the

G20, families are navigating

increasingly complex financial choices

while confronting extremely

sophisticated forms of fraud. I'd hope

to be able to announce a unanimous joint

communicate today to reflect the outcome

from all the great work we've done

together in the past few days and over

the year. Unfortunately,

all save one of the G20 members uh could

not

uh were not able to achieve a complete

consensus.

And while all but one member of the G20

was able to reach consensus, the

language that is reflected in the G20

chair statement, which I will issue

shortly, they

defines our time here and reflects the

important issues of 19 members of the

G20. These topics are critical for the

growth and well-being of our countries,

and we will continue to engage and

demonstrate American leadership on them.

The G20 is at its best when it does what

it was created to do. Identify the

world's leading economies together to

confront difficult questions, identify

where our interests converge, and then

turn that agreement into action. That is

the standard the United States has

brought to this G20 presidency. less

distracted by bureaucracy, virtue

signaling, and more disciplined in

delivering the conditions for stronger

global economic growth. Here in

Asheville, we have demonstrated what

that renewed focus can accomplish. Our

task is now to carry that purpose

forward so that it finds expression

across each of the countries represented

here today. With that, I want to thank

all of you for being here and I'm happy

to take some questions while we bake in

this beautiful the blue ridge sun.

>> How you doing? Uh David Lauder with

Reuters from DC. Um, Secretary, I think

you probably knew going into this that

China would probably not agree to uh

make major changes on its uh global

imbalances, but what can you tell us

about the other 19 uh in terms of

actions that they're willing to take?

Are they willing to sort of, you know,

uh increase their own trade defenses uh

against uh against Chinese imports?

>> Yeah. So, so David, I'm not going to

presume to say what the other countries

would do. I I do think it is incredible

to get 19 countries to agree to anything

you know even maybe that it's a

beautiful day. uh but uh I I do agree or

I do believe that the fact that and you

will see in my chairman's statement that

the the principles here from Asheville

that the around the globe we believe

that non-market-based economies pushing

out a never-ending stream of cheap

exports is not sustainable. And whether

it is the desire to study the causes or

that whether countries within the next

days, weeks or months will take ma will

take actions to reach a resolution on

this unsustainable equilibrium. I I

think that the fact that 19 countries

did want to address this shows the sheer

the enormity of the problem and that we

we agree. So the way forward will be for

all the all the individual countries but

we do see that there is great alignment

>> with the association.

Thank you, Secretary Fatima Hussein with

the Associated Press. Uh, first

question, what which country was the

denter? And secondly, um, could you

describe your conversations with the

Canadian minister and whether there was

any resolution on the tariff standoff?

Well, it is clear that the country with

the world's largest and unsustainable

current account surplus uh people's

republic of China was the denter

and you know I I think that we we have

uh n 19 other voices and as I said uh my

chairman's statement will echo that uh

with uh my discussions with the Canadian

finance minister who I have

traditionally had a very good line of

communication with uh we we discussed uh

AI uh we discussed global imbalances

where the Canadians have been very

strong and we discussed uh how do we put

the trade situation back together and I

think that's going to have to be done at

the leaders level with WL

>> I'm Gracie with WL um I this is

obviously being held here in Asheville.

I was wondering what you guys plan to do

specifically for our recovery in the

region.

>> Well, I think bringing this event to

Asheville uh including

actual dollars spent here and then uh

earned media. It's estimated that it'll

cost more than 20 or that there will be

more than $20 million in benefits. And

I've had uh numerous of the delegates

tell me that they're here. They've never

thought of coming to this part of the

United States again. And they plan to

spend another 3 or 4 days. And just as

we saw that, you know, we we've seen

that as many of these global events

happen around the world, it actually

puts places on the map globally. I

believe I I've grown up coming to this

area my entire life. U I believe America

knows about Asheville but now I think

today the world or in the past few days

the world has discovered Asheville

with AFP.

>> Um thank you Mr. Secretary Bay from AFP

news agency. Um, I just wanted to ask

what your message to European your

message to European partners who feel

that inviting Russia's finance minister

to Asheville sends a troubling signal

given its attacks on Ukraine. And to

what degree has the Russian finance

minister's um presence impacted the work

of G20 members and also of the G7. Thank

you so much.

>> Well, I I would point out that we had 19

out of 20 countries agree so that there

has been no impact. And as President

Trump says, he likes to get along with

everyone. And I think unfortunately, you

know, Russia and Ukraine, if the sides

don't talk, if we are not engaged, then

how can it be solved? So, you know, I I

think the the perspective here, I I know

that the some Europeans had had a sour

taste, but you know, I think it's very

important to to engage otherwise if both

if both fighters go in a corner, then

there will never be a resolution to this

horrible conflict. And I will point out

that the finance minister who I met with

is unsanctioned.

I cannot look at you. I'm sorry.

Secretary Bessent, you said US ally

support the economic campaign against

Iran. What concrete commitments do you

did you secure on second you secure on

second secondary sanctions and the

operation economic outcast? And are

Russia and China among those supporting

the efforts? Uh well we we've had very

quiet conversations with Russia and

China and I think we can move that

discussion forward. As I said with China

on Iran we have more in common than we

have differences. China agrees Iran

cannot have a nuclear weapon. China

agrees that there has to be free

maritime trade in the straight of heres.

China gets 50% of its energy from the

Gulf. So I believe it's up to China or

incumbent upon China to work toward a

solution.

The um we we will see uh how they follow

through. What I can tell you is that

many of our allies came forward and said

we will do whatever is necessary because

they understand that Iran is in an

economic death throws and that the

Iranian snake having had its head cut

off that on once the body the stops

contorting then they will come to the

table. So the more they help us, the

more they help in this conflict. And

they have offered to do whatever they

could, whether it is intelligence,

economic intelligence, and speaking to

any entity that supports this

treacherous evil regime.

>> Julie with NBC.

>> Thank you so much, Mr. Secretary. Julie

Seren, NBC News. Iran moments ago right

now actually is threatening fresh

attacks against American.

>> No, they're not threatening. They're

doing it.

>> They're doing it. That brings me to my

next point. Can you bring Iran to the

table while China continues to back them

financially?

>> Well, I I I think you have bad framing

there. So, that the framing is first

first of all, Iran only has about 30

million barrels of oil or crude on the

waters now. So that's a that's a minimal

amount that I I think somehow this

narrative erupted that the well if China

is not on board what we've had very

productive quiet conversations here with

the Chinese and the other thing too is

the real problem the Chinese pay the

Iranians in R&B. The R&B comes back to

the Gulf region and whether it is

through neighbors shipping the supplies

over or whether it is through banks such

as the one we put out of business in

Dubai on Friday or whether it is the

cash houses, those are being closed

down. So when that money cannot be

converted to dollars, then the regime

will starve.

Thank you. Thank you, Secretary Dan

Reeves, North State Journal. Um the

other local reporters sort of asked the

same question that I was going to ask,

but further than that, um obviously

there'll be a lot of money coming here

because Asheville is beautiful and all

of that. I mean, the tourism dollars and

things and um but Helen was it'll be

about 2 years and just a few weeks. Um,

is there anything that was discussed

over the weekend that North Carolinian

farmers, manufacturers, small business

owners can expect from policy like

actual dollar examples? Uh, look in in

terms that isn't this forum there. We

did have several bilateral conversations

and you know, North Carolina is an egg

state and we have uh in our previous

trade negotiations with China, we've

secured uh large soybean purchases. We

have secured 17 billion of a purchases.

You know, we we are seeing that the as

other countries grow then North Carolina

will grow with it. North Carolina that

is a industrial and manufacturing

powerhouse especially for high-end

industry. We had John Deere here. They

talked about that John Deere David May

is building a new factory here and

reshoring here in North Carolina.

>> Michael,

>> Michael Straford with Politico. Uh, Mr.

Secretary, you said this morning that

the elevated Treasury bond yields was

part of a growth story and reflected the

strength of the American economy, but

the Trump administration came into

office promising to lower rates, lower

costs, and you've previously said you're

focused on bringing down the 10-year

Treasury yield. So, what's your message

to American consumers who are facing

elevated uh mortgage rates, rates on

their consumer loans? And do you worry

that higher rates will be a political

drag for Republicans this fall?

>> Uh, look, the the most important thing

is that we have higher growth. So we

have seen real wage increases under the

Biden administration and this was the

average the average decrease in

purchasing power for Americans was 4%.

21.5%

the inflation 17.5%

wage growth. What we are seeing now is

real wage growth especially for the

bottom the cortile of wage earners which

is exactly what President Trump did in

his first term. And we are working every

day to bring costs down. We have a

temporary elevated energy prices and

these prices will come down. I don't

know whether is today, tomorrow or next

week. We will get to the other side of

this. The economy is strong and

importantly we are creating private

sector jobs here. These are not

government jobs. Government jobs

increase the with the CPI or the PCE.

That's where wages increase. The reason

we are now seeing real wage increases is

that these are private sector jobs.

Unemployment remains low. Consumer

confidence remains high. These energy

prices will come down and then we will

see very large real wage gains again.

>> Hi Secretary Besson Riley with the

Washington Post. I wondered if you could

expand on the agreement between China

and the US on the straight of Hormuz.

Um, has China made any specific

commitments this week to help with the

blockade or efforts to reopen?

>> No, I didn't say that there was a

specific agreement. I said we agreed

that the straight must be open.

>> Thank you, Mr. Secretary. um with the

economic pressure on Iran as well as the

kinetic strikes we're seeing, do you

believe that we are closer to the end or

are we in the middle of this conflict

with

>> Look, the the Iran does not have control

of the straight and they are in a death

spiral. We have control of the straight.

The limited kinetic strikes that we did

yesterday were to take out radar, some

patch patchwork of tinkertoy erector set

radar that they were trying to

reconstruct along the banks of the

straight.

I can't remember what the number is. I

just saw it, but I I think we got out

about 17 million barrels of crude

yesterday. That is not Iranian control

of the street. And I will tell you that

one of the best allies that the Iranians

have on this is the media because the

media immediately publishes all the

lies. All the lies that they say there

are no minds in the street. Two ships

did not hit mines. This is Iranian

agyprop and everyone in this audience

and every news outlet should be ashamed

for publishing that taking a lying

regime

at face value.

>> But is it closer to the end?

>> Well, I I think look they are panicked.

They are resorting to kinetic because

they are getting squeezed economically.

Could you imagine that the country with

the most third most energy resources in

the world now has 4-hour gas lines that

go all night all night because they have

done such a terrible job of managing

their economy and at a point that either

the IRGC are going to turn on each

other, the people are going to turn on

them or they are going to come to the

table and want to do a deal that they

can stick with. President Trump has said

for the past few weeks the reason theou

failed was they were not ready for a

deal. So we will see when they are ready

for a deal. But you know as their bank

account their personal bank accounts

disappear around the world as we squeeze

this regime as their soldiers look at

them when they're not getting paid. We

have seen the president of the

[clears throat]

the uh the president of Iran, the

speaker of the parliament of Iran and

the central bank governor both said last

weekend, we didn't see it reported

anywhere that there are problems in the

economy and everybody should be ready

for it. The supreme leader prepared

everyone for that. So, you know, it's

just going to be a matter of time. And

again, you know, it's an overused the

[clears throat] it's an overused line,

but it's going to be like Ernest

Himmingway said, how did you go bankrupt

slowly then quickly? Well, I think we're

in the acceleration phase. You know, you

you can see the currency the currencies

that 16 months ago the currency was at

800,000 to the dollar. Now, it's 2.1

million. And you know, that just means

that they have no access to dollars. and

that they are in the death throws and it

will they lash out more kinetically

maybe. But they will be ready for a

deal.

>> Matt with

>> Thank you. Uh Matt Mercer with Breitbart

News. One of the signature

accomplishments of the Trump

administration has been the uh tax

reform bill, the working families tax

cuts. Can you talk about Art Lafer being

here as well as what advice he may have

had for other countries to pursue

similar reforms the Trump administration

has made since taking office in 2025?

>> Well, I I just want to say hello to Dr.

Lapper who's over here in the corner. Uh

he is the original Reagan era souvenir

and he has been a great mentor to me and

he has gone he has a long arc in his

career and just as the Reagan tax cuts

the a after a conflict with the Iranians

that created American prosperity

the

Dr. Laugher was instrumental in helping

us craft these tax cuts. And I think

what has been very very powerful is the

full expensing of equipment,

full expensing of factories and full

expensing of a structures. So we are

seeing a industrial boom and that will

first manifest itself in construction

jobs then we will see when the factory

jobs come online and the economy here is

very very strong and I think

reacelerating and this is in the face

the of this around conflict. interest

rates will come down when we get on the

other side of this. The economy will

accelerate. And I would add too that

right now we have what Alan Greenspan

would have called a conundrum that we

have large borrowings by AI

institutions.

They are businesses that are uh meeting

these incredible capex needs. At a point

as we heard from our private sector

partners yesterday these capex this

capex will turn into productivity and

that will be extremely disinflationary.

So I would say I would guess that in the

next 6 months we will start seeing the

benefits of that.

>> Uh hi Mr. Secretary thanks for taking

our questions. Um, I wanted to hear uh a

little bit more about the conversations

you've had about AI uh these past few

days with your ministerial counterparts.

Um, and specifically with China and then

quickly second question, can you tell us

something that you learned about the

global economy these past few days that

you did not know coming into the G20?

Thank you.

>> Great. So uh we had limited discussions

with the Chinese on AI because the

designate for their AI discussions is my

counterpart vice Julie Fong. So he he

was not here. Uh we did have a few

limited conversations. Uh I expect that

when President Trump and Xi Jinping meet

in Washington in September that AI will

be on on the agenda. And look, you know,

as the number one and number two

superpowers in AI uh by a lot, it

behooves all of us to put up guard rails

to have close communication to prevent

the non-state actors from achieving any

of these the powerful um

large language models. uh in terms of

the conversations with the rest of the

G20 because the US is leading they are

always very interested in what we were

doing. So uh we discussed what we have

done uh with the kind of structures we

have set up for our financial

institutions to speak to each other.

We've talked about what are we doing to

increase resiliency and we've told them

we are happy to show them how we have

structured uh industry working groups on

this to show them how we are structuring

uh whether it's grants or loans for

industry to increase their resiliency.

And we also have told them that we

should all be in very close touch

because these models are very powerful.

they're they're moving very quickly and

we all have a responsibility to make the

best of them and to make sure that we

get to the productivity phase and in in

terms of uh what what what have I

learned here is that

everyone understands the problem it's

just do they want to deal with it and

there there are various

hindrances in each part of the world But

you know we we see in Europe that the

Mario Draghi former ECB head uh issued a

report and

we've advised the Europeans to follow

many of his procedures. We've talked to

the Japanese and I've said they had a

tremendous success in aomics. Now they

should actually let that run and stop

the reflation. So everyone knows what

they need to do and I think by creating

this forum here that we were able to

show them what we're doing. We're in

best practices from everyone else.

Uh thank you Mr. Secretary. So Japan's

long-term interest rate hits 3% during

this G20 meeting. And of course one of

the reason I think uh bank of Japan's

interest hike expectation this months

but many market participants also are

closely focus on monitoring the uh

fiscal condition in Japan as a major

economies like including the United

States and could you let me know what

kind of the discussion did you have

regarding the fiscal consolidation

during this G20 meeting and the balance

meeting with Japan as a major economist.

Thank you. Yeah. Well, again, u some of

those conversations are private, but

what I have said publicly is that I I

think that Abnomics, which was designed

to bring Japan out of disinflation, was

a reflationary program, has worked. And

one of the great parts on Abnomics is

the economy has been restructured in

terms of the the corporate sector

bringing down regulation. many many of

the things that we've talked about here

for the past few days, Japan has already

done. So, you know, I think it's now

time, as I said, for Takahuchi Nomics.

And I think that Japan can sit back and

enjoy the benefits of a successful

11 12 13-year run that has brought them

into I think an excellent position

global position is 2011 Japan was

written off as dead and now I think it's

one of the most vibrant economies in the

world and they will if inflation is 2%.

They've succeeded in reflating and now

they have to think about like the

consequences of their success.

>> Thank you. Uh on back to the AI

question, what when you talked with your

private leaders, you talked about the

productivity gains. What's your message

to the Americans and the local and state

leaders who are coming out against the

buildout of this economic

infrastructure? Yeah, look, I I think

that we we need to sit back, take a deep

breath, and the all all change that can

can be uh scary. All all change uh can

uh be sometimes seem like it's moving

too quickly. But the business leaders we

had yesterday, yesterday we decided that

we did not want to have in the AI

companies, the the language labs, the

any of the AI academics. What we wanted

to bring in were real companies. So we

had pharma companies,

farm equipment companies, industrial

companies, and they told us about how

they were integrating it into their

supply chains. And you the fact is that

this can be transformative. I think that

the AI companies, whether it is the

builders of the data centers, whether it

is the labs themselves

have done a horrendous job, horrendous

job of explaining themselves to the

American people. And I think we need a

big reset on this. They're they're going

to have to take some of the blame. And

they are going to have to convince the

American people that all the benefits

will not acrue to a small group. And

that is what I tell them every time I

hear them or every time I see them that

that's what they hear from me that we

have to make sure that this is spread

evenly that the productivity gains that

we see that what we have heard what we

heard yesterday was that AI uh is

increasing jobs. The other thing that we

are seeing in the numbers is that we are

seeing uh AI result in a massive

increase in small business startups

because you're seeing the one the two

the three person company that would have

taken critical mass 15 or 20 people. So

I would expect that we would see a

startup boom and we are we are seeing it

and that's main street that that is

small business that is what powers this.

So again, there's a lot of

misinformation out there and a lot a lot

of it's deserving. Some of it or a lot

of it is Chinese agrop that is just

being regurgitated. And you know, as as

we've seen a a large number of sites

that have uh been pushing back against

AI buildout. Uh we're clearly foreign

and many of them Chinese. And look, I

don't blame the Chinese cuz we're ahead

and we're going to stay ahead. We've

gone from 50% of global compute. By

2028, we will be at 80% of global

compute. The US will be an AI superpower

and all the benefits will acrue to the

American people. Thanks.

>> Okay. Thank you all. [applause]