According to the US Treasury's currency report for the first half of the year ending June 2023, a number of countries and territories were placed on the monitoring list, including Vietnam, China, Germany, Malaysia, Singapore and Taiwan.
These countries and territories have exceeded two of three thresholds: a trade surplus with the US of over $15 billion, a global current account surplus of more than 31.3 trillion of gross domestic product, and net foreign exchange purchases consistently exceeding 21.3 trillion of GDP in a year.
Vietnam was put back on the monitoring list after its global current account surplus jumped to 4.71% of GDP during the monitoring period, reflecting rapid growth in Vietnam’s exports as companies shifted some manufacturing from China to Vietnam.
Switzerland and South Korea were removed from the monitoring list after meeting only one criterion in two consecutive monitoring periods.
Previously, the administration of former US President Donald Trump declared that both Vietnam and Switzerland were currency manipulators due to their use of currency interventions.
However, a US Treasury official said that Vietnam has shown no signs of deterioration in the quality of its foreign exchange operations or cooperation with the US government on currency issues.
While there have been some interventions in the foreign exchange market, such as Japan's, they have been done to prop up the value of their currencies against the dollar, not to boost exports.
The Treasury official also said China remains on the monitoring list due to a lack of transparency in its foreign exchange operations, including the methods and means of intervening in the yuan. The Treasury estimated that China intervened to support the yuan during the latest monitoring period, but not enough to cause any serious impact..
