US Treasury Adds South Korea to Monitoring List

The U.S. Treasury Department has added South Korea back to its monitoring list for foreign exchange policies, following its removal from the list a year ago. This decision comes in the latest semiannual report, which concluded that no major U.S. trading partners manipulated their currencies to gain unfair trade advantages. The monitoring list now includes South Korea, China, Japan, Taiwan, Singapore, Vietnam, and Germany, with South Korea meeting two of the three criteria established under the Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act of 2015. The report highlights ongoing concerns about China's lack of transparency in currency management, while Malaysia was removed from the list. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen emphasized the importance of balanced global growth and reducing excessive external imbalances in foreign exchange practices.