US Commerce Department has offered the country's authorities to adopt a new rule on the introduction of countervailing tariffs on goods from countries that, according to Washington, artificially underestimate their currency against the dollar, said head of US Commerce Department Wilbur Ross.

A similar rule could threaten the increase in tariffs with goods from countries such as Japan, South Korea, India, Germany and Switzerland, Reuters reported. 

Those countries, along with China, were all listed on the Treasury Department’s semi-annual currency report’s “monitoring list”, which tracks currency market interventions, high global current account surpluses and high bilateral trade surpluses.

“This change puts foreign exporters on notice that the Department of Commerce can countervail currency subsidies that harm U.S. industries,” Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said in a statement.