US Treasury: No manipulation of currency to gain trade advantage

• Semi-annual currency report found no major U.S. trading partners manipulated currency to gain unfair trade advantage in four quarters through June 2024.
• No major trading partners met all three criteria for enhanced analysis during the review period.
• Monitoring list of trading partners whose currency practices “merit close attention” includes China, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Taiwan, Vietnam, and Germany.
• Malaysia drops off monitoring list; South Korea added due to large bilateral trade surplus with the U.S. and large global current account surplus.
• Foreign exchange report reiterates call for increased currency transparency from China.
• China’s failure to publish foreign exchange intervention data and lack of exchange rate policy transparency make China an “outlier,” warrants close monitoring.
• China has used daily yuan fix rate over the past year to prevent weakening of yuan, without official explanation.
• Japan intervened in currency markets on April 29, May 1, and July 11-12, 2024, to sell dollars and strengthen yen’s value.
• Reiterates that intervention in large markets should be reserved for very exceptional circumstances with appropriate prior consultations, but Japan is transparent on interventions.

No major issues are cited although there are some red flags for China that a Trump administration could use to justify a stronger response to China from a tarriff standpoint.

This article was written by Greg Michalowski at www.forexlive.com.