During his presidential campaign, Trump had repeatedly pledged to brand China a currency manipulator soon after taking office.
US President Donald Trump on Sunday defended his reversal on whether to call China a currency manipulator, saying on Twitter that China was helping with the North Korean problem.
On Saturday, the Trump administration officially declined to brand China a currency manipulator, in another major U-turn for the US president, who had repeatedly pledged during his campaign to do so soon after taking office. The reversal by the Treasury department was one of the almost half-a-dozen instances when Donald Trump or his administration have gone back on his poll campaign promises.
On February 23, 2017, Trump had declared China the "grand champions" of currency manipulation, 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 had 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.
North Korea problem
Meanwhile, on Sunday, Chinese State Councillor Yang Jiechi in a call with US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, exchanged views on the situation on the Korean Peninsula. The talk came after North Korea had reportedly fired an unidentified missile early on Sunday from its eastern coastal city of Sinpo. But the missile was believed to have exploded on launch, according to South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Last week, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Donald Trump also held a telephonic conversation to discuss the situation on the Korean Peninsula and in Syria. Yang and Tillerson also discussed the implementation of those agreements reached by the two countries' presidents, during their first meeting in Florida earlier this month, reports Xinhua.
With inputs from PTI and Reuters.
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