New | Trump contradicts Mnuchin over China’s currency manipulator label
Trump declared China the “grand champions” of currency manipulation, hours after his Treasury chief said in a CNBC interview that he won’t rush to judgement before his department’s April report.
US President Donald Trump declared China the “grand champions” of currency manipulation on Thursday, just hours after his new Treasury secretary pledged a more methodical approach to analysing Beijing’s foreign exchange practices.
In an exclusive interview with Reuters, Trump said he has not “held back” in his assessment that China manipulates its yuan currency, despite not acting on a campaign promise to declare it a currency manipulator on his first day in office.
“Well they, I think they’re grand champions at manipulation of currency. So I haven’t held back,” Trump said. “We’ll see what happens.”
During his presidential campaign Trump frequently accused China of keeping its currency artificially low against the dollar to make Chinese exports cheaper, “stealing” American manufacturing jobs.
But Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told CNBC on Thursday he was not ready to pass judgement on China’s currency practices.
Asked if the U.S. Treasury was planning to name China a currency manipulator any time soon, Mnuchin said he would follow its normal process of analysing the currency practices of major U.S. trading partners.