China’s Vice Premier Wang Qishan (R) and U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner (L) try to shake hands while U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton stands in the middle ahead of the opening ceremony of the China-U.S. Strategic and Economic Dialogue May 24, 2010 in Beijing, China.
China has long been recognized as the world’s leading currency manipulator which has allowed them (along with Walmart) to kill our nation’s factory base. The latest reaction from the administration and the treasury is:
the administration prefers to tread softly and use diplomacy
It’s a good thing those 12 Representatives and Senators voted to increase unemployment for another two months last week.
David DeGerolamo
U.S. says China not currency manipulator; chides Japan
The U.S. Treasury again shied away from labelling China a currency manipulator on Tuesday, but it rapped the country for not moving quickly enough on exchange rate reforms.
The United States also chided Japan for stepping into the currency market to stem the yen’s rise, and urged South Korea to use such interventions sparingly.
Some U.S. politicians have argued that China has gained an unfair competitive edge in global markets by keeping the yuan artificially low to boost exports, and pressure has mounted in Congress for President Barack Obama to punish China.
But the administration prefers to tread softly and use diplomacy. The U.S. Treasury, in a semi-annual report, as usual said that statutes covering a designation of currency manipulator “have not been met with respect to China.”
It repeated its standard line that appreciation in the yuan has been too slow, calling it “insufficient.”
“Treasury will closely monitor the pace of appreciation and press for policy changes that yield greater exchange rate flexibility, a level playing field, and a sustained shift to domestic demand-led growth,” it said in the report to Congress on international economic and exchange rate policies.
