Ireland has been removed from a US Treasury Department's economic and currency monitoring list.
The list consists of countries that the department has deemed require close attention in relation to their currency practices and macroeconomic policies.
The Treasury has established three criteria for a country to be included on the list.
Ireland was added in May 2019 as it met two of these, including the size of its trade surplus with the US and its current account surplus.
However, in the latest update to the list, the Treasury Department said Ireland has now been removed as it now only meets one out of the three criteria - a significant bilateral surplus with the US for two consecutive reports.
"In Ireland, the current account swung from a sizable surplus in 2018 to a deficit in 2019 due to a substantial widening of the services deficit in the second quarter of 2019," the Treasury said.
"Ireland did not meet the criteria for having a material current account surplus in either the January 2020 Report or this Report. Ireland has been removed from the Monitoring List," it added.
Meanwhile, the US Treasury labeled Switzerland and Vietnam as currency manipulators and added three new names to a watch list of countries it suspects of taking measures to devalue their currencies againstthe dollar.
In what may be one of the last broadsides to international trading partners by the departing administration of President Donald Trump, the US Treasury said that in the year to June Switzerland and Vietnam had intervened heavily in currency markets to prevent effective balance of payments adjustments.
In response to the allegation by the US Treasury, the Swiss National Bank said it does not manipulate its currency and its monetary policy approach would be unchanged, adding that it "remains willing to intervene more strongly in the foreign exchange market".
Vietnam's trade ministry declined to comment on the report and referred questions to the foreign ministry.
The US agency's semi-annual currency manipulation repor tsaid that at least part of Vietnam's foreign exchange intervention was aimed at pushing down the dong for a trade advantage, while at least part of Switzerland's action was aimed at pushing down the Swiss franc to prevent effective balance of payments adjustments.
A senior US Treasury official said both Vietnam and Switzerland had exceeded Treasury's three measurement criteria by a "substantial margin".
The official said the findings of the Treasury report, which had been broadly anticipated by foreign exchange analysts, have not been discussed with the incoming administration of President-elect Joe Biden.
US Treasury Secretary nominee Janet Yellen could alter the findings in her first currency report, which is due in April.
"They are not implicated in this. This is a decision of the Trump administration," the official said.
The move to label Switzerland and Vietnam comes as the coronavirus pandemic skews trade flows and widens US deficits with trading partners, an irritant to Trump who won office four years ago partly on a promise to close the US trade gap.
To be labeled a manipulator by the US Treasury, countries must at least have a $20 billion-plus bilateral trade surplus with the US, foreign currency intervention exceeding 2% of gross domestic product and a global current account surplus exceeding 2% of GDP.
The Treasury said Switzerland's foreign exchange intervention totaled 14% of GDP.
Vietnam, which has seen a rush of foreign investment by companies seeking to avoid US tariffs on Chinese goods, saw intervention of more than 5% of its GDP, it added.
The Treasury official said the US wants to work co-operatively with both countries to bring them back below the manipulation thresholds and declined to speculate on whether the process could lead to US tariffs on their goods.
Among remedies specified in US laws governing the currency report are limiting offending countries' access to US government procurement contracts and to development finance.
Vietnam could be hit with tariffs under a separate investigation by the US Trade Representative's office now underway into the causes of an undervalued dong.
The Treasury findings could influence this probe and some in the business community fear that Trump may move quickly on it.
The Treasury also said its "monitoring list" of countries that meet some of the criteria has hit 10, with the additions of Taiwan, Thailand and India.
Others on the list include China, Japan, Korea, Germany, Italy, Singapore and Malaysia.
The report also said that India and Singapore had also intervened in the foreign exchange market in a "sustained, asymmetric manner" but did not meet other requirements to warrant designation as manipulators.
Additional reporting from Reuters
