The Bush administration will fight legislation aimed at prodding China into revaluing its currency, despite howls from lawmakers over what they call China's unfair trade policies, a US official said.
"We do not believe that projectionist legislation is a way to deal with trade matters," Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez told Reuters on Friday while on a visit to Colombia. Many lawmakers believe China's yuan is undervalued by up to 40 percent, giving Chinese companies an unfair trade advantage. Two Senate committees have passed bills that would give the United States new ways to prod China on currency reform.
But the Bush administration already has enough tools to deal with unfair Chinese trade practices, Gutierrez said. "We have more anti-dumping cases against China than we do against anyone else," said the Cuban-born former Kellogg Co CEO. "We are ensuring that we enforce the rules to make sure that the trading relationship goes the way it should go."
Gutierrez was in Colombia with a group of US lawmakers evaluating progress in the area of human rights under the five-year-old government of President Alvaro Uribe. Many Capitol Hill Democrats say they will not vote for a pending free trade deal with the Andean country until concrete measures are taken to protect labour union members, often targeted for assassination in Colombia.
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