Washington: The United States has retained South Korea on its list of countries being monitored for their foreign exchange policies, as revealed by a Treasury Department report. This development highlights the ongoing significance of currency policy in trade discussions between Seoul and Washington.
According to Yonhap News Agency, the department unveiled the updated "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 of the previous year, having been temporarily removed in November 2023 for the first time since April 2016.
The current monitoring list includes South Korea, China, Japan, Taiwan, Singapore, Vietnam, Germany, Ireland, and Switzerland. Notably, Ireland and Switzerland were not on the list in the November 2024 report.
Countries are placed on this list when they satisfy 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 totaling at least 2 percent of an economy's GDP over a 12-month period.