WASHINGTON (AFP) – The United States (US) added Japan to its “monitoring list” of major trading partners whose currency practices “merit close attention” on Thursday, while reaffirming that none had been designated as a currency manipulator.
The Treasury Department’s semi-annual report looks at countries with big trade surpluses that actively intervene in foreign exchange markets to gain trade advantages.
In its report, the Treasury Department said Japan had met two out of the three criteria needed for “enhanced analysis”, namely “having a material current account surplus and a significant bilateral trade surplus with the US.”
But it was not deemed to have met the third test, being “engaged in persistent one-sided intervention in the foreign exchange market”.
Japan joins China, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam and Germany on the monitoring list, the US agency said in a statement, with none meeting all three criteria to merit enhanced analysis.
“No major US trading partner manipulated the rate of exchange between its currency and the US dollar for purposes of preventing effective balance of payments adjustments or gaining unfair competitive advantage in international trade during the four quarters through December 2023,” the Treasury statement said.
