China's rare earths restrictions are a lot bigger issue than people realize: Wells Fargo's Langan

President Trump is committed to pursuing economic and trade policies that will spur an American revitalization marked by strong economic growth, the elimination of destructive trade deficits, and countering unfair trade practices. This includes combatting unfair currency practices that facilitate competitive advantage, such as unwarranted intervention in currency markets. In this Administration, the Secretary of the Treasury will be vigilant in identifying and taking action against currency manipulation. Treasury will also examine other macroeconomic and financial policies implemented by our trading partners that propagate imbalances or result in an unfair competitive advantage in trade. For decades, unfair currency practices abroad have contributed to the U.S. trade deficit and hollowed out U.S. manufacturing employment. When a trading partner engages excessively in foreign exchange market interventions or other actions to artificially lower the value or suppress appreciation of its currency, this distorts market-based competition, promoting domestic production and exports, and suppressing imports, in ways that do not reflect the productivity of economies or competitiveness of traded goods. There has been a decline in the scale and persistence of foreign exchange intervention among most major U.S. trading partners in recent years, but the damage done is long lasting, including through the reallocation of supply chains and their associated quality jobs, as well as the loss of the homeland’s ability to manufacture critical defense and industrial equipment. The economic and national security implications are self-evident. In very recent years the dollar has generally been strong relative to historical averages, and there have been less persistent appreciation pressures across other currencies. Treasury is closely monitoring whether our trading partners may act through foreign exchange intervention, or non-market policies and practices, to manipulate their currencies for unfair competitive advantage in trade and prevent the swift recovery of American economic strength. In this context, Treasury will continue to monitor closely the extent to which intervention by our trading partners is two-way, and whether economies that choose to smooth exchange rate movements resist depreciation pressure in the same manner as appreciation pressure. U.S. TREASURY SAYS SEMI-ANNUAL CURRENCY REPORT FOUND NO MAJOR U.S. TRADING PARTNERS MANIPULATED CURRENCY TO GAIN UNFAIR TRADE ADVANTAGE IN FOUR QUARTERS THROUGH DECEMBER 2024 U.S. TREASURY: MONITORING LIST OF TRADING PARTNERS WHOSE CURRENCY PRACTICES 'MERIT CLOSE ATTENTION' INCLUDES CHINA, JAPAN, SOUTH KOREA, SINGAPORE, TAIWAN, VIETNAM, GERMANY, IRELAND AND SWITZERLAND U.S. TREASURY: WHILE CHINA IS NOT LABELED A CURRENCY MANIPULATOR AMID YUAN DEPRECIATION PRESSURE, CHINA STANDS OUT AMONG TRADING PARTNERS FOR LACK OF TRANSPARENCY ON EXCHANGE RATE PRACTICES AND POLICIES