Commerce Flubs Currency Decision, Now It’s Up to Congress
The AFL-CIO is disappointed the U.S. Department of Commerce today rejected arguments that China’s undervalued currency acts as an export subsidy.
We agree with Alliance for American Manufacturing (AAM) Executive Director Scott Paul, who said in a statement:
It’s now up to Congress to pass legislation to strengthen and modernize our trade laws so that the devastating impact of currency manipulation can be factored into penalties for subsidies and dumping. Our workers and businesses were promised a level playing field. Unless the mercantilist policies of China and other nations are challenged at every level, we will continue to pile up trade deficits and job losses.
The Economic Policy Institute (EPI) estimates that China’s currency manipulation and the trade deficit it creates cost 2.4 million U.S. jobs between 2001 and 2008. Congress is expected to vote as early as next week on two bills, H.R. 2378 in the House and S. 3134 in the Senate, that would give the government broader powers to act against China’s currency manipulation. The House Ways and Means Committee also has scheduled a major hearing on China’s currency on Sept. 15.
More Unemployed Workers, Fewer Jobs
The U.S. retail sector has been the most immune to the nation’s year-long jobs free fall, but that has changed in recent months and likely will get much worse. Today’s Commerce Department report on retail sales in December, the period when most retailers make a large chunk of their earnings, are bleak: Sales were down 9.8 percent in December from December 2007. These figures mean many stores will be closed and entire chains going bankrupt—and many more U.S. workers will lose their jobs.
Already, there now are four unemployed workers for every job opening, according to the Economic Policy Institute (EPI). The nonprofit group also reports a 90 percent growth of involuntary part-time workers over the past year, with some 8 million U.S. workers forced to settle for fewer hours. Such workers are not counted in the official monthly Labor Department unemployment data, meaning the official U.S. unemployment of 7.2 percent is more like 13.5 percent when underemployed or workers too discouraged to look for work are counted.
