Vietnam and the territory of Taiwan meet all three criteria of trade surplus, current account surpluses, and exchange rate intervention
Vietnam continues to meet the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s criteria for not being labeled as a currency manipulator, the Treasury said in its semiannual currency report on Friday.
In its latest report on its website, the Treasury said it found that no major trading partners of the U.S. over the four quarters through June 2021 sought to manipulate their currencies for an unfair competitive advantage in international trade or for preventing effective balance of payments adjustments.
In particular, Vietnam and the territory of Taiwan meet all three criteria of trade surplus, current account surpluses, and exchange rate intervention, according to the Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act of 2015 (2015 Act).
However, the department said it would continue to work with Vietnam and Taiwan to address U.S. concerns.
In early 2021, the Treasury began enhanced bilateral engagement with Vietnam based on the 2015 Act, and the agency and the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) later reached agreement in July 2021 to address the Treasury’s concerns about the Southeast Asian country’s currency practices, according to the report.
“Treasury continues to engage closely with the SBV to monitor Vietnam’s progress in addressing Treasury’s concerns and is thus far satisfied with progress made by Vietnam,” the agency said.
Throughout last year and the first quarter of 2021, Vietnam had managed to keep its COVID-19 caseload under control and did not experience the same severe economic disruptions as many peers, the Treasury commented.
The country’s GDP grew 2.9 percent in 2020, one of the few to see a positive growth rate amid the global pandemic, it added.
In the report, the Treasury did not spark any significant immediate moves in the Vietnamese dong, the Taiwan dollar or the Swiss franc, Reuters reported.
In a similar report published in April, the Treasury removed Vietnam from the list of currency manipulators as it determined that during the assessment period in 2020, there was not enough evidence that Vietnam manipulated the currency, based on the provisions of the Omnibus Trade and Competition Act 1988.
