*** Please write a half-page summary of the following article about China's currency issue. Thank you.

1/14/2020 Houston Chronicle: U.S. removes Chinas tag as a currency manipulator WASHINGTON

The Treasury Department on Monday dropped China from a list of nations it alleges manipulate their currency values to gain an unfair trade advantage, greasing the wheels for the scheduled signing of a U.S.-China trade deal on Wednesday. In a semi-annual report, Treasury officials said no countries met the standards set by Congress for the manipulator label. The move reversed the departments decision in August to add China to the list. It also comes two days before President Donald Trump is scheduled to sign a partial trade deal with China in a White House ceremony that is expected to disclose the details of Chinese promises on currency and other trade matters. Scott Kennedy, a specialist on the Chinese economy at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said putting China on the list last year had been a political step designed to pressure Beijing in the middle of trade talks. China has not been manipulating its currency, so this is just recognizing reality, said David Dollar of the Brookings Institution, a former Beijing-based Treasury official. The Phase 1deal confirms this, so it would have been inconsistent for the U.S. to sign the deal and continue to call China a manipulator. China is a currency manipulator. That is a fact, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y, said. Unfortunately, President Trump would rather cave to President Xi [Jinping] than stay tough on China. The Treasury report criticized Beijing for turning away from economic liberalization to a more statedirected approach and increasing reliance on nonmarket mechanisms. Chinas growing use of government subsidies and coercive trade practices was distorting its relationships with key trading partners, the report added. The president has long accused China of depressing the yuans value to make its products more affordable for foreign customers, contributing to the chronic trade imbalance with the United States. Despite Trumps previous claims, the International Monetary Fund has said repeatedly that the yuan is fairly valued. In recent years, Beijing has occasionally intervened in currency markets to support the yuans value, not reduce it, said Eswar Prasad, the former head of the IMFs China unit. Chinese authorities fear that an excessively weak currency would only encourage residents to try to evade official controls and send their money outside the country, further depressing the yuan. As a presidential candidate, Trump promised to brand China as a manipulator in his first day in office. Instead, Mnuchin opted not to designate China in 2017 or 2018, since Beijings behavior did not meet specific criteria detailed in a 2015 law. In August, Mnuchin added China to the list in response to pressure from the president, even though many economists said the label was incorrect.