US declines again to name China currency manipulator

The United States on Tuesday declined to name China as a currency manipulator although it remained critical of the Chinese government’s economic policies ahead of a planned visit to Beijing by President Donald Trump. The semi-annual US Treasury currency report said no countries deserved the currency manipulator label, but it kept China on a currency “monitoring list” despite a fall in China’s global current account surplus since 2016. China’s currency, the renminbi, also has strengthened sharply against the dollar this year, reversing three straight years of weakening, Reuters reports. The Treasury cited China’s unusually large, bilateral trade surplus with the United States. “Treasury remains concerned by the lack of progress made in reducing the bilateral trade surplus,” the department said in the report. “China continues to pursue a wide array of policies that limit market access for imported goods and services.” The US-China trade deficit stood at $34.9 billion in August, near a two-year high.