The new administration of US President Donald Trump has added Ireland to its “watch list” of countries to be closely monitored for currency manipulation.
In its currency report for the first half of Trump's second term, the Treasury Department said no major U.S. trading partners had manipulated their currencies in 2024, but added Ireland and Switzerland to its monitoring list for further exchange rate monitoring.
Countries that meet two criteria – a trade surplus with the US of at least $15 billion (€13 billion), a current account surplus of more than 3 percent of GDP, and ongoing unilateral net purchases of foreign exchange – are automatically included in the list. Ireland and Switzerland were added because of their large trade and current account surpluses with the US.
While the ministry does not currently label China as a currency manipulator despite the “devaluation pressure” its yuan is under, it did issue a stern warning to China, stressing that it “stands out among our major trading partners for its lack of transparency in its exchange rate policies and practices.”
“The lack of transparency will not prevent the Treasury Department from designating China if there is evidence of its interference through official or unofficial channels to prevent future appreciation of the (yuan),” the Treasury Department said in a statement.
The document states that China, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, Vietnam, Germany, Ireland and Switzerland are included in the list of countries subject to additional currency exchange controls.
The Swiss National Bank on Friday denied accusations of currency manipulation but said it would continue to act in Switzerland's interests as the strong Swiss franc helped push inflation into negative territory last month.
“The SNB does not manipulate the Swiss franc,” they argue. “It does not try to prevent trade balance adjustments or to gain unfair competitive advantages for the Swiss economy.”
Trump’s first designation of China as a manipulator came in August 2019, a move made then — as it does now — amid heightened trade tensions between the U.S. and China. The Treasury Department removed the designation in January 2020, when Chinese officials arrived in Washington to sign a trade deal with the U.S.
The report, released Thursday, came just hours after Trump spoke with Chinese leader Xi Jinping for the first time since returning to the White House, amid an even wider trade standoff between the world's two largest economies and a recent scramble for critical natural resources.
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On May 12, the countries signed a 90-day agreement to lift some of the triple-digit tariffs they had imposed on each other.
Sourse: breakingnews.ie
