The Senate passed a bill that seeks to penalize China, suspected of manipulating its currency. China replied firmly.
The U.S. Senate Tuesday approved a bill to penalize China, suspected of manipulating its currency to boost exports, despite the reluctance of the White House, a text that has attracted the ire of Beijing. The adoption of the bill is a "severe sprain" the rules of the World Trade Organization (WTO) can cause a "trade war", responded Wednesday to the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Last week, Beijing said was "strongly opposed" to the proposed U.S. law that "causes serious harm to Sino-US trade relations." The elected Senate Democratic majority, the text adopted by 63 votes against 35.But the House of Representatives is not expected to rule on the text, because the leaders of the Republican majority fear a trade war with Beijing. The Speaker of the House, John Boehner, has said recently that such a project was "dangerous".
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said Tuesday night on Bloomberg TV that the senators "did not" triggered a trade war with China by adopting this text. But he reiterated that the Obama administration did not support the bill in its current draft, several provisions would be in his "conflict" with the obligations of the United States (WTO).
As we approach the November 2012 presidential election, supporters of the text argue that the U.S. economy, with its unemployment rate to 9.1%, suffers from an undervalued Chinese currency.With this bill, Senators seeking to push the Treasury to formally accuse Beijing of manipulating its currency. They provide for sanctions where appropriate. The WTO rules provide for the Member States the possibility of sanctioning a trading partner whose exports are subsidized. But these statutes do not explicitly mention the undervaluation of a currency and interpretations differ as to whether the exchange rate in this legal or not.
Last week, however, the president had accused China of "distorting" global trade by acting to lower the value of the yuan. The criminal charges against the yuan and its position very low against the dollar – giving an advantage to Chinese goods up to 30% against the U.S. equivalent products – are not played in Washington.
But opponents of the bill argue that increased exchange rate of the yuan would only create jobs in countries such as Vietnam and Malaysia, not the United States. They also believe that higher prices of imported goods from China will be at the American consumer. Proponents of the text say it is time to attack Beijing and a rise in the yuan could lead to a higher purchasing power in China, so more U.S. exports.
Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio (center), a state factories hard hit by the recession, said the U.S. had so far been weak ahead of China, comparing U.S. trade policy to "unilateral disarmament" face in Beijing.China's central bank decided in June 2010 to let the yuan float more freely against the dollar, after having remained virtually fixed for two years. Since then it has appreciated by about 7%. The U.S. executive has always refused, since a sharp devaluation in 1994, to consider that China was engaged in a "manipulation" of its currency.
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