U.S. TAGS VIETNAM, SWITZERLAND AS CURRENCY MANIPULATORS

The US Treasury Department labeled Vietnam and Switzerland as currency manipulators for the first time while keeping Japan and China on the so-called monitoring list of trading partners whose currency practices merit close attention, Kyodo news agency reported.

India, Thailand and Taiwan were added to the watch list of economies suspected of deliberately devaluing their currencies against the dollar, making it a total of 10 major US trading partners now being monitored by the department over the issue, according to the semiannual report to Congress on foreign exchange policies. The remaining countries on the Treasury Department's monitoring list were Germany, Italy, Malaysia, Singapore and South Korea.

The report was released just about a month ahead of President Donald Trump's expected departure from office following his defeat in the Nov. 3 election.

It said that over the four quarters through June 2020, major US trading partners -- Vietnam, Switzerland, India and Singapore -- intervened in the foreign exchange market in "a sustained, asymmetric manner."

Of the four countries, Vietnam and Switzerland have exceeded the criteria used to identify what the department views as potentially unfair currency practices or excessive external imbalances that could weigh on US growth or harm US workers.

"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 department determines whether a country is manipulating its currency by looking into the extent of intervention in foreign exchange markets and the size of the trade surplus with the US, among other factors.

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