Nearly 160 House Lawmakers Rally to Push Obama on TPP Currency Rules
Nearly 160 House lawmakers, including dozens of Republicans, urged President Barack Obama in a Sept. 25 letter (here) to “incorporate strong and enforceable currency rules” in the Trans-Pacific Partnership, echoing months of pressure to that effect. Most countries, including TPP parties, have already committed to International Monetary Fund and World Trade Organization currency rules, but TPP offers an opportunity to put in place concrete punitive measures for currency violations, said the letter, led by Reps. Debbie Dingell, D-Mich., and Morgan Griffith, R-Va.
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.
Recent currency devaluations in China, Vietnam and elsewhere ratchet up the need to act now on currency as TPP negotiations may be nearing conclusion, the lawmakers said. “The WTO commitment is considered too vague for a country to pursue a dispute, and the IMF, while it has clear provisions, lacks an enforcement mechanism,” said the letter. “Thus, our ultimate aim is to establish a clear and enforceable currency manipulation discipline.” U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman and TPP ministers will convene in Atlanta on Sept. 29 for three days of talks.
The Chinese chose to depreciate the renminbi in August explicitly to boost exports, said a number of the letter’s signatories on a Sept. 25 conference call, refuting President Xi Jinping’s assurances that China doesn’t manipulate currency to fuel exports (see 1509230015). The renminbi dropped roughly 4 percent against the U.S. dollar (see 1508180058).
Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., a signatory to the letter and a critic of current U.S. trade policy, used the conference call to lash into the Office of the USTR over an ongoing lack of transparency. Lawmakers are currently unable to view the TPP text on labor, access to medicines, rules of origin and tobacco negotiations, said DeLauro. In March, USTR made the TPP text available for lawmaker viewing in a secure room of the Capitol (see 1503190001). DeLauro said recent TPP summaries released by USTR are "meaningless."