U.S. currency report: Taiwan, China, Japan remain on 'monitoring list'

The U.S. Department of the Treasury has released its latest report, stating that no major trading partners manipulated their exchange rates in 2025 to gain an unfair competitive edge. This analysis, conducted under the 1988 U.S. Omnibus Trade and Competitiveness Act, found no countries met the criteria for currency manipulation.

Despite this finding, the Treasury Department has placed 10 major trading partners on its "monitoring list" for close observation of their currency and macroeconomic policies. These economies include China, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Singapore, Vietnam, Germany, Ireland, and Switzerland. All these economies were also on the monitoring list in the January report.

Countries are added to this list if they meet two out of three specific criteria outlined in the 2015 Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act. These criteria are: a significant trade surplus with the United States, a large current account surplus, and the persistence of one-way foreign exchange market intervention aimed at preventing their currency from appreciating against the U.S. dollar.

The report notes that Thailand, Singapore, and Switzerland each met only one of these criteria in the latest review. Should they continue to meet fewer than two criteria in the next report, they may be removed from the list. Traditionally, the semi-annual report focused on whether countries intervened in currency markets to keep their currencies weak and exports competitive. However, the Treasury Department has expanded its scope since this year to broadly assess economies that intervene to stabilize exchange rates, whether to prevent appreciation or depreciation.