House Kills China Currency Bill and Chance to Create U.S. Jobs
House Republicans killed another jobs bill tonight, with nearly all of them casting a vote on a procedural motion that buried the Currency Reform for Fair Trade Act (H.R. 639). The bill, which would have held China accountable for its job-killing currency manipulation, was passed last night by the Senate. The motion to bring the bill to the floor was defeated 192-236, with only four Republicans joining 188 Democrats in supporting the move to bring the legislation to a vote.
Had anti-worker Republicans supported the bill, it would have:
- Created at least one million manufacturing jobs in the United States.
- Leveled the playing field for American workers and businesses.
- Enhanced our economic and national security by cutting our trade deficit with China, at no cost to taxpayers.
Senate Passes China Currency Bill: Will Boehner Support Jobs as Well?
By a wide margin, the U.S. Senate this evening passed a bill to hold China accountable for its job-killing practice of currency manipulation. The 63-35 vote on S.1619, the Currency Exchange Rate Oversight Act of 2011, is a good step toward creating U.S. jobs.
According to new data, 2.8 million American jobs were lost or displaced over the past decade due to the growing U.S. trade deficit with China—fueled by Chinese currency manipulation.
But the measure must now be passed by the House, and AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka called on House Majority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) to “allow this vote to take place without delay.”
Congress must stand up for American manufacturing and put an end to the trade war being waged against the working families and communities. Our country needs jobs, and we can no longer afford to be passive.
Alliance for American Manufacturing Executive Director Scott Paul also challenged Boehner to pass the bill after tonight’s vote:
Will you side with the Beijing regime and outsourcers, or will you stand with American manufacturing?
Senate Votes Today on China Currency
The U.S. Senate today will vote on a bill (S. 1619) to hold China accountable for its job-killing practice of currency manipulation. According to new data, 2.8 million American jobs were lost or displaced over the past decade due to the growing U.S. trade deficit with China—fueled by Chinese currency manipulation. (Call your senators today and urge them to vote for S. 1619 or click HERE to e-mail your senators.)
A filibuster against the China currency bill was broken Oct. 6 (63-28). But the vote on final passage was delayed last week when Republicans tried to attach a series of weakening amendments.
Chinese Currency Bill Could Lead to More than 2 Million Jobs
Next week, the U.S. Senate will take up consideration of a bill to address Chinese currency manipulation. The Republican-controlled House is holding up its version of the legislation, even though it passed the House with overwhelming bipartisan support in 2010, with 99 Republicans supporting it.
Unlike other currencies, the Chinese yuan does not fluctuate freely against the dollar but is artificially pegged in order to boost China’s exports. Bringing the Chinese yuan to its equilibrium level—a 28.5 percent appreciation—is essential to creating much-needed jobs in this country. The Alliance for American Manufacturing says addressing Chinese currency manipulation would lead to:
End the Denial. Label China a Currency Manipulator
America and China are publicly in denial about currency manipulation. Both officially state that China is not devaluing its currency.
In mid-March, Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao flatly denied that China deliberately suppresses the value of its currency against the dollar, a practice that decreases the price of its exports and increases the cost of American goods imported into China. Similarly, the U.S. Treasury Department, which is required by the Omnibus Trade and Competitiveness Act of 1988 to name foreign currency manipulators in biannual reports, has not in the past decade and a half called out China—including in the past two reports submitted during the Obama administration.
China and America decline to acknowledge what everyone else knows: China suppresses the value of its currency to gain a trade advantage over America. The New York Times reported on the practice in a story published March 14, describing how currency manipulation has worked wonders for Chinese industry while killing American manufacturing. (Click here to tell the Treasury Department to stop denying that China is manipulating its currency.)
China and the U.S. Housing Bubble
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We often write about how China’s policy to devalue its currency, the yuan, has been a key factor in the U.S. trade deficit.
It’s not an easy issue to grasp. But economist Paul Krugman devotes an entire column to explaining why China’s devalued currency has such ramifications for our country. Here’s Krugman:
If supply and demand had been allowed to prevail, the value of China’s currency would have risen sharply. But Chinese authorities didn’t let it rise. They kept it down by selling vast quantities of the currency, acquiring in return an enormous hoard of foreign assets, mostly in dollars, currently worth about $2.1 trillion.
Many economists, myself included, believe that China’s asset-buying spree helped inflate the housing bubble, setting the stage for the global financial crisis. But China’s insistence on keeping the yuan/dollar rate fixed, even when the dollar declines, may be doing even more harm now.
Read the entire column here.
