US Excludes Korea from Currency Watchlist for Second Consecutive Time (Comprehensive)

Korea Falls Again After November Last Year
Japan Re-Listed After One Year
US Targets China, Calls for "Increased Transparency"

South Korea was removed from the United States' currency monitoring list again in the first half of this year, following the second half of last year.

On the 20th, as the KOSPI index continued its strong performance and surpassed the 2800 mark during trading, employees were busy moving around in the dealing room at the Hana Bank headquarters in Jung-gu, Seoul. The KOSPI opened the session at 2,801.92, up 4.59 points (0.16%) from the previous day. Photo by Jo Yongjun jun21@

According to Bloomberg News on the 20th (local time), the U.S. Department of the Treasury announced the "2024 Midyear Currency Report," which designated seven countries including China, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan, Vietnam, and Germany as currency monitoring countries.

South Korea was excluded from the U.S. currency monitoring list once again in November last year, marking the first time in over seven years since 2016. Japan, which had been removed from the monitoring list in June last year, was added back after one year, while the other six countries maintained their status from last year into this year.

Regarding this report, the Treasury Department stated, "The Biden administration strongly opposes attempts by U.S. trading partners to artificially manipulate currency values to gain unfair advantages over American workers."

The Treasury Department particularly emphasized increased transparency for China, stating, "Due to China's failure to publicly disclose foreign exchange interventions and the broad lack of transparency surrounding key features of its exchange rate policy, China has become a 'rogue' among major economies," and pointed out that "close monitoring by the Treasury Department is necessary."

Under the Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act enacted in 2015, the U.S. evaluates the macroeconomic and exchange rate policies of the top 20 countries with the largest trade volumes with the U.S. and designates them as either subject to in-depth analysis or as monitoring countries if they meet certain criteria. The current evaluation criteria include ▲a trade surplus with the U.S. exceeding $15 billion ▲a current account surplus exceeding 3% of GDP ▲net purchases of dollars exceeding 2% of GDP for at least 8 out of 12 months. If a country meets all three criteria, it is subject to in-depth analysis; if it meets two, it becomes a monitoring country. Currency manipulators face disadvantages such as restrictions on investment in the U.S. and government procurement bidding.

South Korea, which had been on the U.S. monitoring list consecutively 13 times over more than seven years, being excluded from the list for two consecutive times can be seen as recognition of its transparent foreign exchange policy externally. However, government sources explain that even though South Korea is excluded from the currency monitoring list, there are no direct benefits or advantages gained. This is because currency monitoring countries are merely "monitored" and are not subject to sanctions.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.