U.S. Treasury redesignates South Korea as a ‘currency monitoring list’ country

The Donald Trump administration has once again designated South Korea as a ‘currency monitoring list’ country.

In its semiannual report to Congress on “Macroeconomic and Foreign Exchange Policies of Major Trading Partners of the United States,” submitted on the 29th (local time), the U.S. Treasury classified 10 economies—including South Korea—on its monitoring list: China, Japan, Germany, Taiwan, Thailand, Singapore, Vietnam, Ireland and Switzerland.

South Korea had remained on the monitoring list for more than seven years since April 2016 before being removed in November 2023. However, it was put back on the list in November 2024, a year later, and has now remained designated for three consecutive reports, including the latest.

Under the Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act, the U.S. assesses the macroeconomic policies of the top 20 trading partners by trade volume with the United States on a semiannual basis. The three criteria are: a bilateral trade surplus with the U.S. of at least $15 billion; a current account surplus exceeding 3% of gross domestic product (GDP); and net purchases of dollars for at least eight out of 12 months (at least 2% of GDP). Economies meeting two of the three are placed on the monitoring list, while those meeting all three are designated for enhanced analysis. No economy was designated for enhanced analysis in this review.

The report, in particular, was seen as underscoring the Trump administration’s intention to apply strong trade pressure. In a statement, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent stressed that “the Treasury is increasing the intensity of its analysis of trading partners’ currency practices to support President Trump’s ‘America First trade agenda.’”

He added a warning that the Treasury “will closely monitor whether trading partners are artificially adjusting currency values through foreign-exchange market intervention or non-market practices to gain unfair trade advantages.”