US treasury secretary Scott Bessent will skip a G20 finance officials meeting in SA next week, sources familiar with his plans said, and will attend the World Expo 2025 in Osaka, Japan, according to a treasury spokesperson.
Bessent’s decision to miss the G20 finance ministers and central bank governors meeting marks the second time this year he has chosen not to attend a G20 meeting in SA, which is the group’s president this year.
A treasury official confirmed that Michael Kaplan, acting undersecretary for international affairs, would represent the department at the July 17-18 meeting near Durban, instead of Bessent. The US is due to head the G20 group, which it helped found in the aftermath of the global financial crisis, next year.
Bessent, a key figure in President Donald Trump’s trade negotiations, will represent the US at the US national day at the 2025 World Expo in Osaka, a treasury spokesperson said. The national day will be marked on July 19.
It was not immediately clear if he would engage in bilateral meetings during the visit.
News of Bessent’s trip comes a day after Trump sent a letter to Japan raising tariffs on Japanese imports to 25%, starting August 1. Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said he would continue negotiations with the US to seek a mutually beneficial deal.
Bessent skipped SA’s first G20 finance meeting in February to attend Trump’s first cabinet meeting in Washington. Finance ministers from China, Japan, India and Canada also skipped the meeting in Cape Town focused on tackling global poverty, as did the EU’s top economic official.
Bessent’s February decision came amid rising tension between Washington and Pretoria as Trump threatened to cut off funding for SA, accusing President Cyril Ramaphosa’s government of confiscating land from white South Africans. US secretary of state Marco Rubio also skipped a February G20 foreign ministers meeting in SA.
In May, Trump declined to say whether he would attend a G20 leaders summit in SA in November, after ambushing Ramaphosa at the White House with explosive false claims of white genocide and land seizures in Africa's largest economy.
On Monday, Trump sent Ramaphosa a letter informing him that imports from SA would be subject to a 30% tariff starting next month, unless the country agreed to reduce its trade barriers to US goods — one of more than a dozen countries to get similar letters.
Reuters
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