[CTC] Stop Preemption of State Insurance Regulations - Conference Call

[Sarah Edelman, Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch]

Experts say the Chinese currency is undervalued by up to 40 percent.
"China's policy of keeping its currency, the renminbi, undervalued has
become a significant drag on global economic recovery. Something must be
done," said Nobel Prize-winning US economist Paul Krugman. 

 

Treasury Secretary Timothy Giethner has to decide on the issue next month.

 

US currency battle with China underscores global concerns

21 Mar 2010

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/international-business/US-currency-
battle-with-China-underscores-global-concerns/articleshow/5707768.cms

 

WASHINGTON: By pushing China hard to revalue its currency, the United States
may also be doing a favor for export-driven Asian and European nations
reeling from Beijing's exchange-rate policy. 

 

Many of these economies, like the United States, have long complained that a
weak Chinese yuan currency has been giving China an unfair trade advantage
at their expense. But unlike the United States, they have been less
aggressive in championing their cause. 

 

The Asian nations are reluctant to anger their giant neighbor and growth
driver, while the European Union's trade deficit with China is not as
alarming as that of the US. 

 

American lawmakers last week introduced legislation to punish China with
trade sanctions and demanded President Barack Obama label the Asian giant a
currency manipulator, a move that could trigger tougher action on Beijing. 

 

Treasury Secretary Timothy Giethner, who has to decide on the issue next
month, said the yuan issue was a global problem and not confined to the US
alone. 

 

"It is a very important issue, it is important for China, for all China's
trading parners, it is very important for the United States," he told the
Fox broadcasting network when asked about the currency legislation in
Congress. "It is not just an issue between China and the US but for the
world economy as a whole." 

 

The US trade deficit with China soared to nearly 227 billion dollars in
2009, much larger than the total deficit suffered by all China's major
trading partners of 196.1 billion dollars in 2009. 

 

China made its currency a little flexible in 2005 following US pressure but
when the global financial crisis erupted in 2008, it repegged the yuan to
the US dollar to prop up Chinese exports and revive the economy. 

 

Between 2005 and 2008, China allowed the yuan to appreciate by about 20
percent against the dollar but experts say the Chinese currency is
undervalued by up to 40 percent. "China's policy of keeping its currency,
the renminbi, undervalued has become a significant drag on global economic
recovery. Something must be done," said Nobel Prize-winning US economist
Paul Krugman. 

 

Global economic growth would be about 1.5 percentage points higher if China
stopped restraining the value of its currency and running trade surpluses
that are adding to its 2.4 trillion dollars hoard of reserves, he said. 

 

"This is the most distortionary exchange-rate policy any major nation has
ever followed. And it's a policy that seriously damages the rest of the
world," Krugman added. 

 

The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund also think the yuan needs
to be stronger. "The renminbi (yuan) is very much undervalued" and it is
logical that with the world economy regaining its balance "the renminbi will
appreciate," IMF managing director Dominique Strauss-Kahn said last week. 

 

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao has vowed to resist any foreign pressure for a
stronger yuan, saying Beijing made "strong efforts" since the outbreak of
the financial crisis to keep the yuan at a "stable level." 

 

Beijing's rigid exchange-rate policy is also preventing other Asian
export-driven nations from allowing their currencies to appreciate for fear
of losing their export competitiveness to Chinese firms benefiting from the
yuan's government-enforced stability. 

 

"In the short run, with capital pouring into emerging market countries,
their ability to respond to the threat of asset bubbles and overheating is
undermined," said Arvind Subramaniam, an expert at the Washington-based
Peterson Institute for International Economics. 

 

Emerging-market countries such as Brazil, India and South Korea "are loath
to allow their currencies to appreciate, to dampen overheating, when that of
a major trade rival is pegged to the dollar," he said. 

 

The EU trade commissioner, Karel De Gucht, has also lashed out at what he
said was a "deliberate" policy by China of keeping its currency undervalued.


 

He warned in January when he took up the post that China's foreign-exchange
stance posed a "major problem" for global economic recovery and undercut
European exporters. China has overtaken Germany as the world's biggest
exporter. 

 

The "real victims" of China's policy were other emerging-market and
developing countries "because they compete more closely with China than the
United States and Europe, whose source of comparative advantage is very
different from China's," said Subramaniam at the Peterson Institute.  

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