India, April 9 -- Shortly after China announced 84 per cent retaliatory tariffs on American goods, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told Fox Business Network that Beijing's levy is "unfortunate".

Bessent suggested that China "should not try to devalue their way out of" the tariff war, urging Beijing to come to the table for talks.

Instead, he said, China needs to punish those exporting fentanyl precursors to the US, an issue which has been long raised by American President Donald Trump.

Fentanyl became a flashpoint in the US-China relations as Trump accused Beijing of having done very little to stop its export to the US. In turn, China had blamed the Trump administration for using the issue as a pretext to raise tariffs, with the Ch...