US names 2 nations currency manipulators

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Treasury Department has branded Vietnam and Switzerland as currency manipulators while putting China and nine other countries on a watch list in an annual report designed to halt countries from manipulating their currencies to gain unfair trade advantages.

It marked the first time that the United States has labeled another country as a currency manipulator since August 2019 when it called out China amid tense trade negotiations.

“The Treasury Department has taken a strong step today to safeguard economic growth and opportunity for American workers and businesses” Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in a statement.

The Trump administration removed its currency designation from China in January after the two nations had achieved trade agreements that the Trump administration hoped would lower China’s huge trade surplus with the United States.

The Treasury report said that Vietnam and Switzerland were the only two countries that met all three criteria for being named a currency manipulator.

Those criteria include the number and size of the interventions a country has made in foreign exchange markets to influence the value of its currency.

A country intent on gaining trade advantages will sell its currency in an effort to depress its value against other currencies, such as the U.S. dollar.

The Treasury report said that in addition to extensive currency interventions, Vietnam and Switzerland also met the other two criteria which are running large trade surpluses with the United States and also large surpluses in its current account with the world, the broadest measure of trade which includes not only goods and services but also investment flows.

In addition to China, the other countries put on a monitoring list were Japan, South Korea, Germany, Italy, Singapore, Malaysia, Taiwan, Thailand and India. The last three countries were added this year.