[CTC] US Democrats uneasy on deal

[Citizens Trade Campaign]

The Obama administration must deliver a semi-annual currency report to the
U.S. Congress that could name China a currency manipulator.  Lawmakers in
Congress are pressing for stronger action, including letting U.S. companies
seek tariffs on Chinese imports.

 

The report, which is the task of U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner,
was delayed from a mid-April release until after the G20, and could now come
at any time.


Obama: Pressing China on currency to make trade fair


 
<http://blogs.reuters.com/search/journalist.php?edition=us&n=steve.holland&>
Steve Holland -- Credit: Reuters/Larry Downing

RACINE Wisconsin (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama on Wednesday
maintained pressure on China to ensure its currency policy did not give it
an unfair export advantage.

"We've got to make sure that countries we're trading with are being fair. I
believe in free trade," Obama said at a campaign-style meeting in Racine,
Wisconsin.

"For example, if China has a currency that's undervalued, that makes our
exports more expensive. It makes their imports cheaper. So we've been
putting pressure on them to say, you know what, let's make sure that we're
not favoring one side or the other in this trade deal," he said.

China has announced plans to allow its currency to be more flexible, and
Obama said at a weekend Group of 20 meeting in Toronto he believed the yuan
would rise significantly.

During the summit he also announced a new push on a long-stalled trade deal
with  <http://www.reuters.com/places/south-korea> South Korea.

The United States argues the yuan is under-valued by up to 40 percent
against the dollar, claiming this makes its exports unfairly competitive and
effectively poaches American jobs.

Trade is a delicate topic for Obama, whose Democratic Party draws support
from organized labor, which complains that trade deals with
<http://www.reuters.com/places/mexico> Mexico and Canada have hurt U.S.
workers.

Racine, perched on Lake Michigan and with unemployment above 14 percent,
typifies middle-American communities where employers have been hit by cheap
imports and the loss of jobs overseas -- a fact Obama acknowledged.

"It is absolutely true that a lot of our manufacturing left to go to China
and other low-wage countries," Obama said.

Jobs, and a general wariness toward free trade agreements with foreign
countries, will be a crucial factor in U.S. mid-term congressional elections
on November 2, when anger over still-high U.S. unemployment could erode the
power of Obama's Democrats.

Related Stories:


 
<http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t&ct2=us%2F2_0_s_1_0_t&usg=AFQjCNGxTdI_7
60-fnvfYKxFFppgMQxrJg&cid=17593767958942&ei=3qwsTJCYEt7cmQezuflZ&rt=MORE_COV
ERAGE&vm=STANDARD&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.businessweek.com%2Fnews%2F2010-06-30%
2Fobama-says-u-s-will-keep-up-pressure-on-china-over-currency.html> Obama
Says US Will Keep Up Pressure on China Over Currency 


BusinessWeek -
<http://news.google.com/news/search?pz=1&cf=all&ned=us&hl=en&q=author:%22Han
s+Nichols%22&scoring=n> Hans Nichols - ‎17 hours ago‎

June 30 (Bloomberg) -- President Barack Obama said the US will keep up
pressure on China over its currency valuation to ensure fair trade. ... 

 

 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.citizenstrade.org/pipermail/ctcfield-citizenstrade.org/attachments/20100701/1c0ee18d/attachment-0002.htm>