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发帖数: 7918 | 1 http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/05/world/asia/china-criticizes-s
October 4, 2011
China Criticizes U.S. Senate’s Currency Manipulation Bill
By RICK GLADSTONE
China expressed strong objections on Tuesday to a bill in the United States
Senate that would threaten to impose higher tariffs on some Chinese goods
over its currency policies. The tariffs would be in retaliation for what
some American lawmakers and economists say is a Chinese policy of keeping
its currency artificially depressed, to give its exports a price advantage.
The Senate voted 79 to 19 on Monday to open debate on the bill, which would
require the Treasury Department to determine whether China is manipulating
its currency, and then order the Commerce Department to impose tariffs on
certain Chinese goods as a punitive countermeasure.
Ma Zhaoxu, a spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, said in a statement
that the bill “seriously violates rules of the World Trade Organization
and obstructs China-U.S. trade ties.” The statement, reported by Xinhua,
China’s official news agency, urged senators to “rationally understand
Sino-U.S. trade cooperation, which is mutually beneficial in nature, and
stop pressuring China through domestic lawmaking.”
The statement did not specify what steps, if any, China might take in
response to the legislation, should it move toward passage. But Mr. Ma said
the bill would “further escalate the exchange rate issue by adopting
protectionist measures with an excuse of ‘currency imbalance.’ ”
Even if passed by the Senate, the bill would face headwinds in the House of
Representatives, where the Republican leadership has expressed opposition
this week.
The value of China’s currency, the renminbi, has become an increasingly
contentious issue in Chinese-American relations. China’s critics contend
that the country intervenes in the currency markets to keep the value of the
renminbi artificially low, making Chinese goods cheaper abroad and American
goods more expensive in China. Lawmakers and some economists say that the
policy undercuts American businesses and worsens the American unemployment
rate.
The renminbi has been rising in value. One dollar now buys about 6.4
renminbi, compared with 6.8 renminbi in June 2010, when China’s central
bank loosened some restrictions on the currency. Economists estimate that
the renminbi is still undervalued by about 25 percent relative to the dollar.
China continues to run large trade surpluses with the United States: $273
billion in 2010, compared with $83 billion a decade earlier. But China’s
overall trade surplus has declined, relative to the size of its economy,
since 2007, a trend that Chinese officials cite as evidence that the
renminbi is drawing closer to its natural market value. | w******1
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