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US urges china currency to rise against dollar { March 23 2006 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/23/AR2006032301287.htmlhttp://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/23/AR2006032301287.html
U.S. Urges China to Address Trade Tensions
By MARTIN CRUTSINGER
The Associated Press
Thursday, March 23, 2006; 6:11 PM
WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration told China on Thursday that it will be looking for concrete actions to lower trade tensions between the two nations in advance of a U.S. visit next month by Chinese President Hu Jintao.
Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez, who will hold talks with Chinese officials next week in Beijing, said his message would be that the administration was looking for China to play a responsible role in the global trading community.
"This is a time for results," Gutierrez said in an interview with The Associated Press. "We will be very candid about our expectations and about where we believe that action needs to take place in order for China to achieve that role as a responsible stakeholder" in the global economy.
Gutierrez is scheduled to leave Saturday for a trip in which he will meet with the country's top economic officials in Beijing to review the agenda for talks in Washington scheduled for April 11 of the U.S.-China Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade.
At the last meeting in July of that panel, which includes top economic officials of both countries, China made a number of commitments aimed at boosting U.S. export sales.
Gutierrez said the administration planned to use the upcoming meeting to determine how much progress China has made in meeting those commitments in such areas as reducing barriers to the sale of U.S. and other foreign goods in China and cracking down on widespread piracy of U.S. copyrighted material such as computer programs, movies and music.
"We will be going over what we agreed to do last year and we will have a status report on the areas where we believe China has delivered and those areas where we believe they still have work to do," Gutierrez said of the discussions he will have with officials next week.
The administration is facing growing pressure from Congress to deal with a U.S trade deficit with China that hit $202 billion last year, the highest amount ever recorded with a single country.
Gutierrez' visit and the April 11 high-level economic negotiations are taking place in advance of a visit by Hu to the White House scheduled for April 24.
There are reports that the Chinese are preparing various initiatives before Hu's visit in an effort to ease trade tensions between the two nations, including announcing increased purchases of Boeing Co. aircraft.
Asked about those reports, Gutierrez said, "We always welcome big purchases of U.S. products. .... That is something we will wait and see what they have decided."
One area where the Chinese pledged to make progress was in the enforcement of intellectual property law. Industry estimates are that 90 percent of the computer software used in China is pirated, costing American companies billions of dollars annually in lost sales.
Gutierrez said his discussions with the Chinese next week would cover the broad areas of intellectual property, greater market access for U.S. products, Chinese government procurement rules and greater transparency in business dealings.
"We will be very clear in those areas where commitments have not been delivered," Gutierrez said.
Another area where the Chinese are facing pressure involves the country's currency system. American manufacturers contend that China is artificially keeping its currency undervalued by as much as 40 percent to give Chinese companies an unfair competitive advantage over U.S. producers.
Treasury Secretary John Snow told reporters Thursday that he did not know whether a report on China's currency practices would be released before Hu's visit.
Under law, Treasury must report to Congress by April 15 and October 15 each year on whether any countries are unfairly manipulating their currencies to gain trade advantages. Treasury, however, often misses those deadlines.
During a visit to a Hagerstown, Md., Volvo plant, Snow said the report would be issued "when we've completed the analysis" but that there was no "precise timetable."
A group of lawmakers led by Sens. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., are pushing legislation that would impose penalty tariffs of 27.5 percent on all Chinese imports to the United States unless China allows its currency to rise in value against the dollar.
Schumer and Graham traveled to China for talks on the issue this week and both expressed optimism that China is prepared to do more. But they said they are not ready to withdraw their legislation.
"The jury is still out. We need some concrete signs," Schumer told reporters in Beijing.
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Associated Press reporters Joe McDonald in Beijing and David Dishneau in Hagerstown contributed to this report.
© 2006 The Associated Press
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