At least the U.S Treasury can see some sense. What is the Senate up to? This is simple protectionism and should offend free thinking economists everywhere. This is short sighted in the extreme.
Treasury: Cannot support Senate currency bill
My bold and not all the text included here.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Treasury said it cannot support a bill passed by the Senate Finance Committee on Thursday to give the U.S. government new tools to pressure China and other countries to adopt more market-oriented currency practices.
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"It distances the U.S. from a multilateral approach and raises serious concerns regarding U.S. compliance with international rules governing anti-dumping investigations."
Passed by a vote of 20-1, the Senate Finance Committee's measure would allow U.S. companies to seek anti-dumping duties on goods from any country that maintains a "fundamentally misaligned" exchange rate after being formally cited by the United States.
Another provision would allow the Federal Reserve to intervene in global currency markets if one year of efforts through the International Monetary Fund and World Trade Organization also failed to result in reform of targeted currencies.
The Treasury said it recognized that members of Congress want to send a strong message to China through this bill and others under consideration and added that Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson would deliver such a strong message when he visits President Hu Jintao and other top Chinese leaders next week.
But Treasury said it cannot support the bill's approach and "continues to believe that direct, robust discussions with the senior Chinese leaders, not legislation is the best means of achieving progress."
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