US Treasury finds no trading partner manipulated currency for trade advantage in 2025

July 23 (Reuters) - No major U.S. trading partner manipulated its currency to gain an unfair trade advantage in 2025, the U.S. Treasury Department said on Thursday, but 10 leading trading partners remain on a list for enhanced monitoring of their foreign exchange practices.

In its latest semi-annual currency report, the Treasury said its analysis conducted in accordance with the Omnibus Trade and Competitiveness Act of 1988 found that no major trading partner manipulated its exchange rate, and a separate analysis found that none met all three criteria for enhanced analysis of currency practices during 2025.

"However, 10 economies are on Treasury's 'monitoring list' of major trading partners whose currency practices and macroeconomic policies merit close attention: China, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Singapore, Vietnam, Germany, Ireland, and Switzerland," Treasury said. "All were on the monitoring list in the January 2026 report."

Countries are placed on the monitoring list if they meet two of three criteria set out in the Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act of 2015: a significant bilateral trade surplus with the U.S.; a material current account surplus; and persistent, one-sided intervention in the foreign exchange market.

In the latest report, Thailand, Singapore and Switzerland each met just one of the criteria and will be removed from the list if they meet fewer than two in the next report, Treasury said.

Prior to January's report, the semi-annual exercise had traditionally focused on whether countries were engaging in one-sided currency intervention or other manipulation to resist appreciation against the dollar to keep their exports cheaper.

But starting this year, the Treasury said in January it "is now monitoring more broadly the extent to which economies that choose to smooth exchange rate movements do so to resist depreciation pressure in the same manner as they do to resist appreciation pressure."