China Currency Coalition Supports Recommendation by U.S.-China Commission for Legislation to Address Currency Undervaluation

Washington, DC, USA, 22 November 2006 -- /PRNewswire/ -- The China Currency Coalition (CCC), an alliance of industry, agriculture, and worker organizations whose mission is to support U.S. manufacturing, today applauded the recommendation of the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission that Congress pass legislation to treat undervalued misalignment of a currency such as China's renminbi as a countervailable, prohibited export subsidy.

"This unanimous proposal by the Commission is appropriate, practical, and consistent with the international legal rights of the United States and the international legal obligations of China under the agreements of the World Trade Organization (WTO)," said David A. Hartquist, counsel to the China Currency Coalition. "Enforced undervaluation of any country's currency is a pernicious practice that has far-reaching, injurious consequences for U.S. domestic industry and workers, and that is why the China Currency Coalition supports S. 3992 and H.R. 1498. We are very grateful to Senator Jim Bunning (R-KY) and Congressmen Tim Ryan (D-OH) and Duncan Hunter (R-CA) for their leadership on this issue. There is an urgent need in the CCC's judgment to counteract this sort of currency misalignment, whether by China or any other country," he said.

"Legislation to implement in domestic U.S. law China's commitments in its accession agreement with the WTO is all the more important in light of the Commerce Department's actions this week with respect to a countervailing duty petition against paper from China," Hartquist said. "In initiating its investigation, the Commerce Department noted that it was not going to investigate China's currency manipulation and also said that it intends to determine during the course of its investigation of other alleged subsidies whether the countervailing duty law should now be applied to imports from China. Congress can, and in the CCC's judgment should, exercise its constitutional authority to clarify that undervalued currency misalignment is a prohibited countervailable export subsidy and that the countervailing duty law covers imports from a non-market-economy country like China," he said.

The CCC estimates that China's currency remains undervalued by about 40% despite modest improvements since July 2005 in the exchange rate.

The China Currency Coalition's co-chairs are AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Richard L. Trumka and Doug Bartlett, Chairman of Bartlett Manufacturing Company, Inc., in Cary, Illinois, also a member of the United States Business Industry Council. David A. Hartquist is a senior partner at the Washington, D.C. office of Kelley Drye Collier Shannon where he heads the international trade practice area.

For more information on the China Currency Coalition, visit http://www.chinacurrencycoalition.org/.

Source: China Currency Coalition