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Title 22, Foreign Relations and IntercourseRelease 119-110

§5304 International Negotiations on Exchange Rate and Economic Policies

Title 22 › CHAPTER 62 — INTERNATIONAL FINANCIAL POLICY › SUBCHAPTER I — EXCHANGE RATES AND INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC POLICY CO­ORDINATION › § 5304

Last updated Sep 22, 2026|Official source

Summary

The President must negotiate with other countries to get major economies to better coordinate their economic policies, to push trade and current account balances and currency rates to levels that can be sustained, and to create a plan to improve how exchange rates are managed so they stay stable over the long term. Each year the Secretary of the Treasury must review foreign exchange policies with the IMF and check for currency manipulation that blocks balance-of-payments adjustments or gives unfair trade advantage. If a country both has a material global current account surplus and a large trade surplus with the United States, the Secretary must quickly start talks (at the IMF or bilaterally) to make that country adjust its exchange rate. The Secretary may delay talks if they would seriously harm vital national economic or security interests, but must tell the chair and ranking minority member of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs and of the House Committee on Banking, Finance and Urban Affairs.

Full Legal Text

Title 22, §5304

Foreign Relations and Intercourse, Source: USLM XML via OLRC

(a)Multilateral negotiations
The President shall seek to confer and negotiate with other countries—
(1)to achieve—
(A)better coordination of macroeconomic policies of the major industrialized nations; and
(B)more appropriate and sustainable levels of trade and current account balances, and exchange rates of the dollar and other currencies consistent with such balances; and
(2)to develop a program for improving existing mechanisms for coordination and improving the functioning of the exchange rate system to provide for long-term exchange rate stability consistent with more appropriate and sustainable current account balances.
(b)Bilateral negotiations
The Secretary of the Treasury shall analyze on an annual basis the exchange rate policies of foreign countries, in consultation with the International Monetary Fund, and consider 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. If the Secretary considers that such manipulation is occurring with respect to countries that (1) have material global current account surpluses; and (2) have significant bilateral trade surpluses with the United States, the Secretary of the Treasury shall take action to initiate negotiations with such foreign countries on an expedited basis, in the International Monetary Fund or bilaterally, for the purpose of ensuring that such countries regularly and promptly adjust the rate of exchange between their currencies and the United States dollar to permit effective balance of payments adjustments and to eliminate the unfair advantage. The Secretary shall not be required to initiate negotiations in cases where such negotiations would have a serious detrimental impact on vital national economic and security interests; in such cases, the Secretary shall inform the chairman and the ranking minority member of the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs of the Senate and of the Committee on Banking, Finance and Urban Affairs of the House of Representatives of his determination.

Legislative History

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries

Change of Name

Committee on Banking, Finance and Urban Affairs of House of Representatives treated as referring to Committee on Banking and Financial Services of House of Representatives by section 1(a) of Pub. L. 104–14, set out as a note preceding section 21 of Title 2, The Congress. Committee on Banking and Financial Services of House of Representatives abolished and replaced by Committee on Financial Services of House of Representatives, and jurisdiction over matters relating to securities and exchanges and insurance generally transferred from Committee on Energy and Commerce of House of Representatives by House Resolution No. 5, One Hundred Seventh Congress, Jan. 3, 2001. Negotiations on Currency Exchange Rates Pub. L. 100–418, title I, § 1124, Aug. 23, 1988, 102 Stat. 1146, provided that: “(a) Findings.—The Congress finds that—“(1) the benefit of trade concessions can be adversely affected by misalignments in currency, and “(2) misalignments in currency caused by government policies intended to maintain an unfair trade advantage tend to nullify and impair trade concessions. “(b) Negotiations.—Whenever, in the course of negotiating a trade agreement under this subtitle [subtitle A (§§ 1101 to 1125) of title I of Pub. L. 100–418, see Tables for classification], the President is advised by the Secretary of the Treasury that a foreign country that is a party to the negotiations satisfies the criteria for initiating bilateral currency negotiations listed in section 3004(b) of this Act [22 U.S.C. 5304(b)], the Secretary of the Treasury shall take action to initiate bilateral currency negotiations on an expedited basis with such foreign country.”

Reference

Citations & Metadata

Citation

22 U.S.C. § 5304

Title 22, Foreign Relations and Intercourse

Last Updated

Sep 22, 2026

Release point: 119-110