U.S. Treasury postpones semi-annual currency report

The U.S. Treasury Department announced Friday that it will delay the publication of its semi- annual currency report to Congress. The Treasury will "delay publication of the semi-annual Report to Congress on International Economic and Exchange Rate Policies of our major trading partners until later this year," it said in a statement. This could give the Treasury a chance to assess progress following several international meetings in the coming months, including the G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors Meeting, the G20 Leaders Summit, the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Finance Ministers Meeting, and APEC Leaders Meeting. The Omnibus Trade and Competitiveness Act of 1988 requires the Treasury to provide reports on whether countries manipulate the rate of exchange between their currency and the United States dollar for purposes of preventing effective balance of payments adjustments or gaining unfair competitive advantage in international trade. The currency report was scheduled to be released on Saturday. However, the current and previous U.S. administrations have often missed the report deadline. The U.S. Treasury last published the semi-annual report on May 27, 2011. In five previous such reports from the Obama administration, the U.S. government has declined to label China as a "currency manipulator". The U.S. Senate on Tuesday passed a controversial currency bill which threatens to punish China for so-called "currency manipulation" with retaliatory tariffs, despite strong opposition from China and many U.S. business groups.