Page 11 - aruba-today-20201217

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business Thursday 17 december 2020

U.S. brands Vietnam, Switzerland as currency manipulators

By MARTIN CRUTSINGER tral bank has been selling
and PAUL WISEMAN Swiss francs to limit the cur-
AP Economics Writers rency's rise and the cur-
WASHINGTON (AP) — The rency has also benefited
U.S. Treasury Department for its reputation as a safe
has branded Vietnam and haven for investors during
Switzerland as currency times of economic stress.
manipulators while put- Independent analysts say
ting China and nine other that is mainly an attempt to
countries on a watch list in keep consumer prices from
an annual report designed falling - which can hurt the
to halt countries from ma- economy - rather than to
nipulating their currencies boost exports to the U.S.
to gain unfair trade advan- But the Treasury report la-
tages. beled Switzerland a curren-
It marked the first time that cy manipulator contend-
the United States has la- ing that the interventions in
beled another country as currency markets were ex-
a currency manipulator cessive given the large size
since August 2019 when it of the Swiss trade surpluses.
called out China at a time The United States has only
when the world's two larg- named three countries as
est economies were locked currency manipulators. In
in tense trade negotiations. addition to branding China
"The Treasury Department as a manipulator last year,
has taken a strong step to- Vietnamese money dong is seen at the Asia Commercial Bank in Hanoi, Vietnam, in this June 16, the U.S. imposed that label
2008, file photo.
day to safeguard econom- Associated Press on China from 1992 to 1994.
ic growth and opportunity Treasury also imposed that
for American workers and that Vietnam and Switzer- makes imports more ex- alter the two countries' cur- label on Japan and Taiwan
businesses" Treasury Secre- land were the only two pensive. The Treasury report rency practices, the United in the 1980s.A hallmark of
tary Steven Mnuchin said in countries that met all three said that in addition to ex- States can move forward President Donald Trump's
a statement. "Treasury will criteria for being named a tensive currency interven- to impose economic sanc- presidency has been pur-
follow up on its findings with currency manipulator. tions, Vietnam and Switzer- tions on Vietnam and Swit- suit of aggressive trade
respect to Vietnam and Those criteria include the land also met the other two zerland including penalty policies and a number of
Switzerland to work toward number and size of the in- criteria which are running tariffs. other countries in such ar-
eliminating practices tat terventions a country has large trade surpluses with In addition to China, the eas as steel and aluminum.
create unfair advantages made in foreign exchange the United States and also other countries put on a While the policies have not
for foreign countries." markets to influence the large surpluses in its current monitoring list were Japan, done much to lower Amer-
The Trump administra- value of its currency. A account with the world, the South Korea, Germany, ica's overall trade deficit,
tion removed its currency country intent on gaining broadest measure of trade Italy, Singapore, Malaysia, the deficit with China has
designation from China trade advantages will sell which includes not only Taiwan, Thailand and India. shrunk. The gap between
in January after the two its currency in an effort to goods and services but Taiwan, Thailand and India what the United States sells
nations had achieved depress its value against also investment flows. were put on the watch list to China and what it buys
trade agreements which other currencies, such as The designation of a cur- this year while the other in goods and services fell
the Trump administration the U.S. dollar. rency manipulator will trig- countries were already on by 19% last year to $308 bil-
hoped would lower China's A weaker currency makes ger special negotiations the watch list issued with lion, the lowest level since
huge trade surplus with the a country's exports cheap- with Vietnam and Switzer- the last report in January. 2013 but still the largest
United States. er and thus more competi- land over the next year. If With regard to Switzer- trade deficit with any single
The Treasury report said tive on foreign markets and those negotiations don't land, the country's cen- country.q

Facebook criticizes Apple privacy policy in newspaper ads

By The Associated Press will be devastating to small That surveillance is cur-
Facebook is again pushing businesses adding to the rently done automatically
back on new Apple privacy many challenges they face by many apps, and would
rules for its mobile devices, right now," the ad states. force people to go to the
this time saying in full page The ads come after Ap- time and trouble to block
newspaper ads that the ple said earlier this week it the tracking in the settings
social media giant is stand- would begun spelling out of each app. Apple says it
ing up for small businesses. what kinds of personal in- will oust apps from its stores
In ads that ran in The New formation is being collect- if they try to bypass the new
York Times, The Wall Street ed by the digital services anti-tracking rule when it
Journal and other national displayed in its app stores becomes effective next
newspapers, Facebook for iPhones and other prod- year. In many instances, This combo of file photos shows the Apple and Facebook logos.
said Apple's new rules "limit ucts made by the trendset- the data scooped up by Associated Press
businesses ability to run per- ting company. apps is used to sell ads tar-
sonalized ads and reach Apple also has plans to geted at a particular per- months ago as part of an Facebook complained
their customers effectively." impose a new mandate son's interest and location, effort to help its customers that the changes would
"While limiting how person- that will require all iPhone especially if their services gain a better understand- hurt businesses' ability to
alized ads can be used apps to obtain permission are being offered for free. ing of how apps monitor personalize ads.
does impact larger compa- before tracking a person's Apple announced the their habits, tastes and Apple declined to
nies like us, these changes activities on the device. changes were coming six whereabouts. At the time comment.q