Five other trading partners who were on last October's monitoring list - Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Germany and Switzerland - also remain on the list, ensuring that the Treasury would apply extra scrutiny to their foreign exchange and economic policies.
In a semiannual report to Congress, the department kept Japan, China, South Korea, Taiwan, Germany and Switzerland on the so-called "monitoring list", saying the six economies warrant "close attention to their currency practices".
China is still on a currency "monitoring list" on the US Treasury's semi-annual report, one step below being labeled a currency manipulator.
Over the last decade, China's effective exchange rate has appreciated more than any other major currency, rising a total of more than 40 percent, said David Dollar, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution.
The United States has declined to label China a currency manipulator despite President 's insistent pledge during the election campaign that he would do so as soon as he took office.
While Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping last week agreed to 100-day trade talks, United States business leaders in China have expressed concern about a lack of progress in gaining further access to the Chinese market despite years of negotiations. The three are: a significant bilateral trade surplus with the USA; a material current account surplus; and the involvement in persistent one-sided intervention in the foreign exchange market.
Economists agree that China doesn't now merit the label of currency manipulator, and has not engaged in the practice for several years.
With Washington pushing a trade agenda aimed at reducing deficits, experts say the most logical option is to lengthen the time period for reviewing currency market interventions from 12 months to several years.
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Eswar Prasad, a professor of worldwide trade at Cornell University, said the administration's decision not to label China a currency manipulator was a good thing for the global economy. The U.S. may try to limit the dollar's rise against the yen in its first economic dialogue with Japan, scheduled for Tuesday.
"Using that label right now would have ratcheted up the tensions, would have accomplished little in terms of advancing US economic and business interests, and could have hurt the bilateral relationship at a time when the relationship is even more important, not just for economics but for geopolitical issues", Prasad said.
The US Department of Treasury yesterday concluded that no major trading partner of the US met the Congressional standards for currency manipulation in the second half of 2016.
It was the third time for Taiwan to be placed on the currency monitoring list since the United States started to publish such a report in April 2016.
But other prominent promises made on the campaign trail have yet to materialize, including renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement with Canada and Mexico and hammering out better terms of trade with China.
Before the summit, Trump tweeted that the meeting would be a "very hard one" due to China's large trade deficit and the American jobs it had cost.
"Treasury also places high importance on greater transparency of China's exchange rate and reserve management operations and goals", said the report.
The report also criticized Japan for failing to do more to stimulate domestic demand and thereby increase sales of USA and other foreign goods.
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