Trump calls China «grand champions» of currency manipulation, but Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin says he’s not «making any judgments» yet.
Trump revived a regular theme from his campaign on Thursday, describing China as «grand champions» of currency manipulation in an interview with Reuters.
Those comments came on the same day that his Treasury secretary, Steven Mnuchin , said the administration isn’t «making any judgments» on China’s currency yet.
During his campaign, Trump repeatedly accused China of devaluing the yuan to boost its exports, thereby killing U. S. manufacturing jobs. He pledged that the Treasury Department would officially label China a «currency manipulator» on his first day in the White House.
Related: Why is Trump backing off his China threats?
More than a month into the Trump administration, no such move has been made — and Mnuchin’s comments Thursday on CNBC suggest it won’t happen anytime soon.
«We have a process within Treasury where we go through and look at currency manipulation across the board,» he said. «We’ll go through that process. We’ll do that as we have in the past. »
That means no official declaration until April at the earliest, which is when the department’s next report on foreign currencies is due.
But Trump objected to the suggestion that he’s toned down his stance on China.
«I think they’re grand champions at manipulation of currency,» he told Reuters.
