Amid the inexorably rising US trade deficit, Washington is crying foul about "unfair" currency practices by its major trading partners. The leading economies of east Asia are seen as the main culprits, accumulating large trade surpluses and stockpiles of foreign exchange reserves while maintaining exchange rates that appear by all economic measures to be considerably undervalued. If the US Treasury will not act to address these inequities, Congress has threatened to take the issue out of Treasury's hands.