Washington: The United States has retained South Korea on its list of countries subject to monitoring for their foreign exchange policies, as revealed by a Treasury Department report on Thursday. Currency policy remains a focal point in ongoing trade discussions between Seoul and Washington.
According to Yonhap News Agency, the Treasury Department issued the revised “monitoring list” in its semiannual “Report to Congress on Macroeconomic and Foreign Exchange Policies of Major Trading Partners of the United States.” South Korea was reinstated on the list in November last year, following a brief exclusion in November 2023, marking the first time it was not included since April 2016.
The updated monitoring list includes South Korea, China, Japan, Taiwan, Singapore, Vietnam, Germany, Ireland, and Switzerland. Notably, only Ireland and Switzerland were absent from the list in the report from November 2024.
In its report, the department emphasized its commitment to utilizing “all available tools” to counter “unfair” currency practices. The document reiterated President Trump’s dedication to economic and trade policies aimed at fostering American growth, eliminating trade deficits, and addressing unfair trade practices, particularly those related to currency manipulation.
Countries are added to the monitoring list if they meet two of the three criteria outlined by the U.S. Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act of 2015. These criteria include a bilateral trade surplus with the U.S. of at least $15 billion, a material current account surplus of at least 3 percent of GDP, and persistent, one-sided intervention in the foreign currency market for at least eight months within a year, with net purchases amounting to at least 2 percent of an economy’s GDP over a 12-month period.