The Obama administration has taken a step toward dropping China from a U.S. currency manipulation watchlist even as Republican candidate Donald Trump promises to declare Beijing a manipulator on Day 1 of his presidency.
Mr. Trump has accused China repeatedly of currency manipulation and using the policy to suck jobs out of the United States. He has vowed to impose punitive tariffs on its imports into the U.S. in a move economists fear could set off a trade war between the world's two biggest economies.
But the U.S. Treasury said today that by its reckoning China now met just one of the three criteria for inclusion on a currency watch list after its current account surplus fell below 3 percent of gross domestic product in the year to June. Under Treasury's current guidelines that means that, if nothing changes, Beijing could fall off the watch list as soon as next year.
For their twice-yearly foreign exchange report to Congress Treasury officials also monitor a country's trade balance with the US as well as any "persistent one-sided intervention" in currency markets. ...
... For the remainder of the report:
https://www.ft.com/content/9bb2e3ee-9246-11e6...2e-b428cb934b78
