Tuesday, October 4, 2011

China: Don’t electioneer at our expense

Yesterday, the US Senate voted 79-19 to open a week-long debate on a bill that calls for U.S. tariffs on imports from countries with deliberately undervalued currencies.
(Ahem)
Naturally, the move prompted an angry rebuke from China, which holds down the value of its yuan currency to give its exporters an edge in global markets. China claims it is committed to gradual currency reform, noting that the yuan has risen 30 percent against the dollar since 2005, and warned that passage of such legislation will spark a trade war.
Supporters of the legislation say it would create new jobs and boost the U.S. economy, but China, and some in the United States, say it could trigger a damaging trade war.
The Chinese central bank warned the proposed law would not fix the economic problems in the United States and could cause more serious problems.
If the bill passes, it "cannot resolve insufficient saving, the high trade deficit and the high unemployment rate in the U.S., and it may seriously affect the progress of China's exchange rate reform and may lead to a trade war, which we do not want to see," the bank said.
-Yahoo! News

Top Republican legislators in the US agree.
The strong misgivings of House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner were the first clear sign the currency legislation might fizzle out, as similar bills have done since lawmakers began targeting China's yuan policy in 2005.
"I think it's pretty dangerous to be moving legislation through the United States Congress forcing someone to deal with the value of their currency," Boehner told reporters.
"While I've got concerns about how the Chinese have dealt with their currency, I'm not sure this is the way to fix it."
-Reuters

So Democrats want to, Repulicans don't want to...no news there.
What is news though, is that China is pissed off at the rhetoric flyin around inside the beltway...and that's actually pretty big news.