President Trump will not name China a currency manipulator this year, despite repeated campaign promises to do so on his first day in office.
Trump told the Wall Street Journal Wednesday that he will not officially name China a currency manipulator in a forthcoming report because the country, he said, hasn’t recently been artificially manipulating the yuan and because doing so would hurt the U.S. in negotiating with China over North Korea.
“They’re not currency manipulators,” Trump said.
Trump had laid out the case that China is a currency manipulator and pledged to take action against the communist nation in a fall 2015 Wall Street Journal op-ed. That the U.S. government needed a more aggressive stance in negotiations with China was a core theme of his campaign.
In Wednesday’s interview, Trump asserted that the dollar is becoming too strong, but chalked up its strength to investor confidence in his administration.
The Treasury is expected to release its semi-annual report on currency manipulators this week.
Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid criticized Trump for declining to label China a manipulator Wednesday afternoon, saying in a statement that Trump is giving “them a green light to steal our jobs and wealth time and time again.”
“The best way to get China to cooperate with North Korea, is to be tough on them with trade, which is the number one thing China’s government cares about,” Schumer said.
Trump also said he now supports the Export-Import Bank, which conservatives have been trying to eliminate for years as an agency of “crony capitalism.” Trump had campaigned against the bank, which guarantees loans for international clients of U.S. companies, including Boeing.
“It turns out that, first of all, lots of small companies are really helped, the vendor companies,” Mr. Trump said. “But also, maybe more important, other countries give [assistance]. When other countries give it we lose a tremendous amount of business.”
