Posted on 11/17/2004 6:55:37 PM PST by maui_hawaii
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Bush is likely to raise U.S. concerns about China's currency policies when he meets at a summit in Chile with Chinese President Hu Jintao, a senior U.S. official said on Wednesday. "He's had a consistent practice of raising this," the official said, calling the currency issue "a matter of concern for us."
The official repeated Treasury Secretary John Snow's message to the Chinese that "we believe the best economic systems are those that operate under the terms of free trade, free exchange rates and free movement of capital," the official said.
The United States wants China to adopt a more flexible exchange rate as a way to boost exports and help U.S. manufacturers.
Bush meets Hu on Friday on the fringes of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Santiago, Chile. He has raised the currency issue on several occasions but the official said China has only taken "incremental steps."
This summit will be a veritable Who's Hu.
Talk is cheap.
The real fix is to have China change itself...rather than just strong arming them. The former rather than the latter takes a lot more work, but will also be a WHOLE LOT more effective should it get put fully into place.
And getting nowhere.
Name one other Asian currency manipulator where diplomatic efforts have succeeded...
Manipulating currencies is expensive, but the tactic is used because it works.
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