The US Treasury Department retracted an accusation dating back to the era of former President Donald Trump of Switzerland and Vietnam of manipulating the exchange rates of their currencies in order to obtain a competitive commercial advantage, noting Friday that there is no "sufficient evidence" on the accusation.
While the ministry removed the feature of manipulation from the two countries, they still meet the criteria that require scrutiny of their monetary policies, and Taiwan was added to them, according to a semi-annual report it submitted to Congress.
China also remains on the Treasury's "watch list" after it was removed from the ranks of currency manipulative countries in January 2020, shortly before then President Donald Trump signed an initial trade agreement with Beijing.
Beijing has long been targeted with scrutiny under the report, while Washington has repeatedly accused its government of keeping exchange rates artificially discounted by using its massive stockpiles of US dollars.
In the Treasury's latest report, the latter urged China to "improve transparency in its foreign exchange rate intervention activities" and policies.
Also included in the list of controlled countries are Japan, Korea, Germany, Italy, India, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Ireland and Mexico.
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said in a statement that her department "is working diligently to deal with attempts by foreign economies to artificially manipulate the values of their currencies, which puts American workers in an unfair situation."
And Congress needs analysis issued twice a year to identify countries that may be actively trying to keep their currencies weaker than the dollar, which lowers their export prices while raising the price of American products.
But the report's conclusions are largely symbolic and penalties are not imposed.
The report examined 20 major trading partners, whose annual merchandise trade with the United States amounts to at least $ 40 billion annually. These countries contribute about 80% of trade in US products, according to a Treasury official who spoke to reporters.
The study is based on criteria that include a large trade deficit with the United States, a large current account surplus, and evidence of "permanent and unilateral interference" in the foreign exchange markets.
The Treasury official said Switzerland, Taiwan and Vietnam all exceeded the thresholds by large margins.
The report stated that Congress calls on the Treasury to engage in "enhanced consultations" with these countries, "including urging the development of a plan with specific steps to deal with the underlying causes of devaluation and external imbalances in the external balance."
The Swiss National Bank protested in December the country's classification as manipulating exchange rates and issued a new statement Friday to confirm it denied any inappropriate activity.
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