As the U.S. embarks on its fifth round of Strategic and Economic Dialogue (S&ED) talks with China, the Alliance for American Manufacturing (AAM) is pressing the Obama Administration to make concrete progress made on Beijing’s longstanding policy of currency manipulation.
Currency manipulation, which is prohibited under international trade law, artificially lowers the cost of Chinese exports, while simultaneously taxing U.S. products entering the Chinese market.
AAM President Scott Paul said:
“I’m not holding my breath that this week’s meetings will produce any surprises. But the Administration should know that the American people are long past the point of fatigue on this issue.
“The same old promises and handshake photo-ops can’t replace progress on the ‘China problem,’ especially when Washington is asleep at the switch on job creation. In this week’s meetings, Secretaries Kerry and Lew must inform Beijing that continued access to the U.S. market will be conditioned on a steady, meaningful upward trajectory of the Yuan.”
Paul says that President Obama’s pledge to create 1 million manufacturing jobs in his second term is already stalled, and it won’t get anywhere until Beijing is forced to curtail its very deliberate, protectionist practices. In particular, action on currency is long overdue:
- The U.S. has lost 2.7 million jobs over the past decade due to a growing trade deficit with China;
- Ending China’s currency manipulation and cracking down on unfair trade could reduce the U.S. goods trade deficit with China by $190 billion to $400 billion, creating between 2.2 million and 4.7 million U.S. jobs.
Paul recently authored an op-ed in Real Clear Politics on the problems of unbalanced trade with China.