Trump administration declined to brand China a currency manipulator

Almaty. October 19. Silkroadnews – Trump administration declined to brand China a currency manipulator, the South China Morning Post reported.
“The United States has declined to brand China a currency manipulator but remains critical of the Chinese government’s economic policies ahead of a planned visit to Beijing by US President Donald Trump,” the report said.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Treasury currency department stated no countries deserves to be considered as a currency manipulator, but kept China in the currency “monitoring list”, despite a fall in the current account surplus of China. The currency of China, the yuan, has also strengthened sharply against the US dollar this year, after three straight years of weakening.
China’s unusually large bilateral trade balance with the United States is underlined in the semi-annual report.
“Treasury remains concerned by the lack of progress made in reducing the bilateral trade surplus. China continues to pursue a wide array of policies that limit market access for imported goods and services,” the report reads.
The trade deficit between the US and China in August made $34.9 billion, almost reaching a two-year high.
Another four US trading partners on the monitoring list in April - Japan, South Korea, Germany and Switzerland - remained on the list. The report says that Taiwan was removed from the list, as it reduced the scale of its foreign exchange interventions.
“The Treasury department did not alter its three major thresholds for identifying currency manipulation put in place last year by the Obama administration: a bilateral trade surplus with the US of US$20 billion or more; a global current account surplus of at least 3 per cent of gross domestic product, and persistent foreign exchange purchases equal to 2 per cent of GDP over 12 months,” the publication says.  
It is reported that none of the countries meet all three criteria. At the same time, the treasury explained that the country would be added to the monitoring list if meets any two criteria or accounts for a large and disproportionate share of the overall US trade deficit.