China surplus shows US must push on yuan-Schumer-UPDATE 1
Trade the News
Wednesday August 11, 2010 03:31:19 PM GMT
(Adds background, industry group statement)
WASHINGTON, Aug 10 (Reuters) - New York Senator Charles Schumer, an outspoken critic of Chinese trade policy, on Tuesday seized on an unexpected surge in China's trade surplus to renew his call for U.S. legislation to deal with Chinese currency practices.
"These numbers show just how little motive China has to end its currency manipulation unless it is pushed to do so," Schumer said in a statement after new data showed China's trade surplus rose in July to an 18-month high of $28.7 billion.
Schumer is one of the loudest critics in Congress of China's currency practices, which he blames for scores of lost U.S. manufacturing jobs.
He leads a bipartisan group pressing for legislation that would require the Commerce Department to apply countervailing duties against countries with undervalued currencies.
The lawmakers contend China's currency is undervalued by 25 percent to 40 percent against the U.S. dollar, giving Chinese exporters an unfair price advantage.
China loosened its currency, known as the yuan, from a near two-year peg to the dollar on June 19. Since then, the yuan has risen just 0.8 percent against the dollar.
"China's expanding trade surplus tells us two things. First, China is back to its same old mercantilist tricks. Second, China's currency announcement was a sham," Scott Paul, executive director of the Alliance for American Manufacturing, said in a statement. (Reporting by Doug Palmer; Editing by Dan Grebler)
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