A new report from the U.S. Department of the Treasury looks at the Macroeconomic and Foreign Exchange Policies of Major Trading Partners of the United States.
The semiannual report to Congress reviews and assesses the policies of major U.S. trading partners which combined represent about 78 percent of U.S. foreign trade in goods and services, during the four quarters through the end of 2024. The Trump administration has said it will no longer accept persistent trade deficits and asserted that the country is beginning to see changes in some of the country’s trading partners’ policies which, it said, could reverse those deficits. The administration said that for decades, unfair currency practices abroad have contributed to the U.S. trade deficit and “hollowed out U.S. manufacturing employment.”
“The Trump Administration has put our trading partners on notice that macroeconomic policies that incentivize an unbalanced trading relationship with the United States will no longer be accepted, and we will continue to strengthen our analysis of currency practices and increase the consequences of any manipulation designation. Moving forward, Treasury will use all available tools at its disposal to implement strong countermeasures against unfair currency practices,” U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said. “In line with President Trump’s America First Trade Policy, the United States Treasury will be vigilant in identifying and taking action against currency manipulation and will continue to closely monitor a range of relevant macroeconomic and financial policies implemented by our trading partners that propagate imbalances, contribute to significant exchange rate misalignments, or result in an unfair competitive advantage in trade.”
The report found that no major trading partner met all three criteria for enhanced analysis under the Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act of 2015. Nine countries are on the Treasury Department’s “Monitoring List” of major trading partners whose currency practices and macroeconomic policies merit close attention – China, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, Vietnam, Germany, Ireland, and Switzerland.