House Members Introduce Bill to Confront Currency Manipulation
A bipartisan group of House members introduced legislation on Feb. 10 to allow the Commerce Department to level countervailing duties on foreign imports to counteract currency manipulation impacts on U.S. industry. House Ways and Means ranking member Sandy Levin, D-Mich., as well as Reps. Tim Ryan, D-Ohio, Mo Brooks, R-Ala., and Tim Murphy, R-Pa., introduced the Currency Reform for Fair Trade Act (here) to the applause of a number of other lawmakers.
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Timely, relevant coverage of court proceedings and agency rulings involving tariffs, classification, valuation, origin and antidumping and countervailing duties. Each day, Trade Law Daily subscribers receive a daily headline email, in-depth PDF edition and access to all relevant documents via our trade law source document library and website.
The legislation, which overwhelming passed the House in 2010 but failed to advance further, isn’t enough to quash currency manipulation, and the Obama administration needs to also include enforceable currency rules in the Trans-Pacific Partnership, said Levin in a fact sheet on the bill (here). Although the administration opposes TPP currency rules, Levin continues to insist they are part of a TPP pact (see 1502090017).
Sens. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, and Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., joined Levin and Brooks in supporting the legislation in an op-ed in The Hill (here). “There is bipartisan support for addressing currency manipulation, and Congress must act now to prevent more harm to our economy,” said the op-ed. Meanwhile, the U.S.-China Business Council rejected the legislation, saying Chinese currency is steadily appreciating (here).