Trade associations urge Senate to abandon China currency bill

“These issues include inadequate protection of intellectual property, restrictions on market access, the need for financial services liberalization, restrictions on the export of commodities such as rare earths, discriminatory indigenous innovation and other industrial policies,” it added. “Above all, such legislation would threaten job creation and economic growth at a time when the United States dearly needs both.”

{mosads}The letter also warned against legislation that would increase tariffs on China by saying it would not give China any incentive to move.

“Tariff legislation would not get us closer to the goal of a market-driven exchange rate,” it said. “Instead, it would highlight US unilateral action, thereby shifting the focus of the international community away from the core issue of China’s currency.”

Reid has said the Senate would be taking up a China currency bill soon, ostensibly to satisfy critics of U.S. trade policy as Congress begins to consider pending trade agreements with Colombia, Panama and South Korea. The Senate this week is also trying to approve extended benefits to workers who lose their jobs to trade as part of efforts to renew the Generalized System of Preferences program, and China currency language could come up in the context of that bill.

China’s undervalued currency has been seen for several years by Democrats as another contributing factor to U.S. job losses, and China legislation has been threatened but never passed by both chambers.

Signatories to the letter include the U.S.-China Business Council, U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and the Business Roundtable.