Semi-annual US Treasury report did, however, keep China on a currency ‘monitoring list’ despite a lower global current account surplus, citing China’s unusually large, bilateral trade surplus with the United States
U. S. President Donald Trump’s administration declined to name any major trading partner as a currency manipulator in a highly anticipated report on Friday, backing away from a key Trump campaign promise to slap such a label on China.
The semi-annual U. S. Treasury currency report did, however, keep China on a currency “monitoring list” despite a lower global current account surplus, citing China’s unusually large, bilateral trade surplus with the United States.
Five other trading partners who were on last October’s monitoring list – Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Germany and Switzerland – also remain on the list, ensuring that the Treasury would apply extra scrutiny to their foreign exchange and economic policies.
The Treasury report recognized what many analysts have said over the past year, namely that China has recently intervened in foreign exchange markets to prop up the value of its yuan currency, not push it lower to make Chinese exports cheaper.
Foreign exchange experts told Reuters last week that a manipulator label was unlikely for Beijing.
FILE – euros, the Hong Kong dollar, U. S. dollar, Japanese yen, British pound and Chinese 100-yuan banknotes are seen in a picture illustration shot, Jan. 21, 2016.
Trump, who on the campaign trail blamed China for “stealing” U. S.
