U.S. unlikely to push China hard on currency issue

Reuters via Fidelity.com ^ | May 19, 2010 | Glenn Somerville

[mlocher]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States will continue nudging China at top-level talks in Beijing next week to let its yuan currency appreciate but won't push hard on the issue, senior Treasury officials indicated on Wednesday.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and the department's senior coordinator for Chinese affairs said they will urge China to see yuan appreciation as being in its own interest as well as that of the global economy.

But next Monday and Tuesday's Strategic and Economic Dialogue in Beijing is essentially cast as one in a series of gatherings between now and late June in which the Obama administration will try to gently push its point that Beijing should act .

"It's very important, and we've made very clear that a more market-oriented exchange rate would contribute to balanced, sustainable growth," David Loevinger, Treasury's senior coordinator for Chinese affairs, said at a briefing.

WORLD HAS AN INTEREST

Earlier, Geithner similarly said currency appreciation was not just a U.S.-China issue but one that involves the whole global economy. China has amassed huge trade surpluses and foreign reserves while becoming an exporting powerhouse. Now, the United States and others want China to boost consumption at home.

The U.S. Treasury has postponed a report on currency practices of key trade partners past a scheduled April 15 release, saying it wanted to explore the issue further at S&ED talks and at meetings of Group of 20 finance ministers in early June and G20 political leaders later next month.

Many analysts saw that as an effective deadline for Beijing to resume letting its yuan, also called the renminbi, rise in value or risk being named a currency manipulator with potential trade sanctions to follow.

Geithner wouldn't speculate on the timing of any action.

[mlocher]

Geithner ought to spend more time worrying about the US Debt and its impact on the future value of the dollar and less time trying to tell others how to run their country.

[Tenega]

If Geithner does not push the PRC hard on this, then he is a gutless fool. Rather than ease the onus on China to upwardly revalue its currency, the Greek/Eurozone debt crisis will actually add to it, and in an urgent fashion. Trade has to balance overall, and if Europe is not there to absorb China’s surpluses, then all the burden falls on the U.S.

For a thorough analysis: http://mpettis.com/2010/05/don’t-misread-the-trade-implications-of-the-euro-crisis-for-china/

[AnotherUnixGeek]

U.S. unlikely to push China hard on currency issue

The US is unlikely to push China hard on anything, and has been since the Nixon administration. It's been a bipartisan, multi-decade effort to elevate and confer power on this Communist tyranny and the thugs who lead it, but the US is no longer in any position to push China hard on anything even if we wanted to.