Scott Bessent accuses the IMF and the World Bank of “Mission Creep”

Treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, called on major revisions to the missions of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank on Wednesday, but said that the United States was determined to maintain its leadership role in global economic institutions.

The comments, during a discourse on the sidelines of Spring Meetings of the IMF and the World Bank, have a time of concern among the decision-makers that the Trump administration could fully withdraw the United States from the Fund and the Bank.

The United States has changed the global trade system in recent months, and the views of the Trump administration on climate change, international development and economic equity are often in contradiction with those of other nations which are shareholders of global institutions.

The IMF on Tuesday demoted its growth prospects worldwide and in the United States due to President Trump’s punitive rates. Trade tensions between the United States and China, the biggest economies in the world, threaten to weigh on production this year and next year.

In his remarks, Mr. Bessent defended the commercial actions of the Trump administration and called on China to limit economic practices which, according to him, destabilized international trade. He noted that the United States has embarked on commercial negotiations with dozens of countries and expressed optimism that these negotiations would help rebalance the global economy and make the global trade system more equitable.

It is not known when, or if, the United States and China are starting to engage in talks. Trump said he expects to speak with Xi Jinping, the chief of China, but no official conversation has been planned.