The United States has added South Korea to its "watch list" of major trading partners whose currency practices require closer attention, according to a Treasury Department report.
The semiannual report looks at countries with large trade surpluses relative to the United States that also actively intervene in currency markets to gain a competitive advantage.
It concludes that in the four quarters ending June 2024, none of the United States' major trading partners manipulated their exchange rates to prevent "effective balance of payments adjustments" or to gain an unfair competitive advantage in global trade.
In addition to South Korea, China, Japan, Taiwan, Singapore, Vietnam and Germany were also included on the watch list.
Of this group, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Vietnam and Germany met two of the three criteria to merit enhanced analysis.
These are "the existence of a significant bilateral trade surplus with the United States and a significant current account surplus".
Singapore is said to have engaged in "persistent unilateral currency intervention".
Malaysia, which was previously on the monitoring list, was removed.
To leave China on the list, the Treasury Department cited the country's "failure to publish information on foreign exchange interventions and a more widespread lack of transparency regarding key features of its currency mechanism."
The Treasury called China "an outlier among major economies," adding that Beijing also has an "excessively large trade imbalance with the United States."
"Treasury strongly advocates that our major trading partners adopt policies that support strong, sustainable, and balanced global growth and reduce excessive external imbalances," Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said in a statement. | BGNES
