Taiwan stays on U.S. Treasury's currency manipulation monitoring list

Washington, Jan. 29 (CNA) Taiwan remained on the United States Department of the Treasury's "Monitoring List" of trade partners whose currency practices "merit close attention," according to its semiannual report released Thursday.

The report, covering the four quarters through June 2025, found that no major U.S. trading partners manipulated exchange rates against the dollar, but placed 10 economies on a watch list for further monitoring.

Aside from Taiwan, they were China, Japan, South Korea, Thailand, Singapore, Vietnam, Germany, Ireland and Switzerland, with all except Thailand carried over from the previous list issued in June 2025.

The Treasury said economies on the list met two of its three criteria for currency manipulation during the evaluation period: a trade surplus with the U.S. exceeding US$15 billion, a current account surplus above 3 percent of GDP, and persistent net foreign currency purchases exceeding 2 percent of GDP in at least eight of 12 months.

All of the economies on the list except for Singapore met both the trade surplus and current account surplus criteria, according to the report.

The Treasury said Taiwan recorded a trade surplus of US$100 billion with the U.S. during the report period (actually US$94.1 billion according to Taiwan government statistics), while its current account surplus was 15 percent of GDP.

However, its net purchases of foreign exchange in the reporting period, totaling US$5.9 billion, represented only 0.7 percent of GDP.

The report noted that Taiwan's "extremely large current account surplus" has persisted largely because of elevated demand for technology products, and described the bilateral trade surplus with the U.S. as having "grown considerably," continuing a five-year trend.

On foreign exchange intervention, the Treasury said Taiwan's central bank made small net purchases of foreign currency during the period, mostly in May amid heightened market volatility.

Despite this, the Taiwan dollar appreciated 11.2 percent against the U.S. dollar during the report period before partially retreating in the following months, the Treasury said.

The report also highlighted Taiwan's Nov. 14, 2025 joint statement with the U.S. Treasury committing to publicly disclose information on foreign exchange interventions at least quarterly.