Long-overdue rule says currency undervaluation is a trade subsidy
CPA Applauds New Commerce Department Currency Rules
Washington. The Coalition for a Prosperous America (CPA) today stated its appreciation for a new Department of Commerce rule that would impose countervailing duties on imports benefiting from foreign currency undervaluation. CPA has long supported such action and was a key advocate for House and Senate currency manipulation bills in 2010 and 2011.
“We are very pleased that Secretary Wilbur Ross and the Commerce Department determined that exchange rate manipulation is a subsidy that should be subject to countervailing duties,” said CPA Chair Dan DiMicco. “This has been an enormous challenge for America’s manufacturers and agricultural producers for many years. Finally, domestic industry will have recourse against artificially underpriced imports. We congratulate the Trump administration for taking this crucial step.”
For years, America’s domestic manufacturers have fought an uphill battle
against currency manipulation practiced by China and other nations. An
undervalued currency allows countries to sell goods in the U.S. market at
artificially low prices and also makes U.S. exports more expensive overseas.
While Members of Congress have previously attempted to pass currency
legislation, no previous administration was supportive. In that time, America’s
trade deficit has climbed tremendously and millions of good paying jobs were
lost.
The new Commerce regulation will allow U.S. companies to bring trade cases against imports benefiting from certain forms
of currency undervaluation. Commerce’s rule identifies criteria needed to
determine if countervailing duties should be imposed, offering relief to harmed
domestic industries.
“This is an important step for our members, and for the many domestic producers
who are at risk when foreign countries undervalue their currencies,” said
Michael Stumo, CEO of the CPA. “Washington is waking up to the serious
challenge posed by exchange rate manipulation and must now move to address
dollar overvaluation – caused by excessive inflows of foreign capital – as
well.
The new Commerce rule is extremely helpful, but dollar overvaluation persists even when other countries do not actively manipulate their currencies. We look forward to working with Congress on passage of the crucial Baldwin-Hawley bill (S 2357) to fix this misalignment.”
Read more about how currency misalignment is the primary driver of America’s trade imbalances and the importance of the bipartisan Baldwin-Hawley ‘Competitive Dollar for Jobs and Prosperity Act.’
BuyDirectUSA.com Note: China has a long history of currency manipulation that helps put their prices at an unfair advantage, the sooner this is stopped the better for the US and our manufacturers.
