⁍ Vietnam’s prime minister said on Monday the country’s exchange rate policy was not aimed at helping its exports.

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⁍ The U.S. Trade Representative said earlier this month it was opening an investigation into whether Vietnam has been undervaluing its dong currency.

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⁍ Vietnam has been on Washington’s watch list of currency manipulators.

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– Vietnam’s prime minister said Monday the country’s exchange rate policy was not aimed at helping its exports and asked that President Trump have “a more objective assessment of the reality in Vietnam,” Reuters reports. The US Trade Representative said earlier this month that under Trump’s direction, it was opening an investigation into whether Vietnam has been undervaluing its dong currency and harming US commerce. “If the dong is devalued, it will seriously hurt the economy,” Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc told Adam Boehler, head of the US International Development Finance Corporation, at a meeting in Hanoi. “Vietnam is not using exchange rate policy to create competitive advantage in international trade.” Vietnam has been on Washington’s watch list of currency manipulators because of its trade surplus with the US, a large current-account surplus, and a perception that its central bank has been actively buying foreign currency. The US Treasury in August found that Vietnam’s currency was undervalued in 2019 by about 4.7% against the dollar due in part to government intervention. Phuc in a statement asked Boehler to tell Trump and the USTR to “have a more objective assessment of reality in Vietnam” with regard to the trade imbalance.