The U.S. Treasury found that no major trading partner manipulated its currency for a trade advantage in 2025, yet it kept 10 economies on a list for enhanced monitoring. Thailand, Singapore and Switzerland each tripped only one of three warning criteria and could drop off the next report.
The U.S. Treasury Department cleared every major trading partner of currency manipulation in 2025, it said on Thursday, while keeping 10 economies under close watch of their foreign exchange practices.
No manipulation, but the watchlist holds
The finding came in the Treasury's latest semi-annual currency report. Its analysis under the Omnibus Trade and Competitiveness Act of 1988 found that no major trading partner manipulated its exchange rate, and a separate review determined that none met all three criteria for enhanced analysis during 2025.
Ten economies still sit on the monitoring list: China, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Singapore, Vietnam, Germany, Ireland and Switzerland. All of them appeared on the list in the January 2026 report as well.
What puts a country on the list
A country joins the list when it meets 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 currency market.
Three of the named economies are close to the exit. Thailand, Singapore and Switzerland each met just one of the criteria and will be dropped if they stay below two in the next report.
A wider lens on intervention
Before January's report, the exercise had focused on whether countries used one-sided intervention or other manipulation to resist appreciation against the dollar and keep their exports cheaper. The Treasury said in January it now monitors currency practices more broadly, watching whether economies that smooth exchange-rate moves act to "resist depreciation pressure in the same manner as they do to resist appreciation pressure".
Source: Investing.com
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