WASHINGTON – Michigan’s Republican Congressional Delegation is calling China’s changes to its predatory exchange rate a step forward towards reversing the erosion of Michigan manufacturing jobs caused by China’s undervalued currency.
The Chinese government Thursday revalued the yuan to 8.11 per U.S. dollar, a change of 2.1 percent, and announced the yuan will no longer be solely pegged to the dollar. While China's initial actions do not appreciably benefit the global trading system it is significant because the Republican Congress has been applying legislative pressure on China to revalue its currency.
Rep. Mike Rogers (MI-8) said: "Thursday's announcement gives momentum to our efforts to address with China its ongoing failure to abide by trade agreement rules. Clearly, Congressional and administration pressures have helped move this process forward and we intend to continue to work to address a wide range of issues, particularly China's rampant intellectual property theft, which, along with currency manipulation and illegal subsidies, cheats our economy and steals American jobs."
Rep. Thaddeus McCotter (MI-11) said: “This is a small step in the long march of protecting Michigan manufacturers from Communist China’s unfair trade practices.”
Rep. Candice Miller (MI-10) said: “We need to send a message to Communist China that we in America support free trade, but expect our trading partners to trade fairly also. China has advantaged itself of our market while still propping up barriers to theirs including manipulating their currency.”
Rep. Joe Schwarz (MI-7) said: “The move by China to let the yuan slightly over 2% is a long awaited currency policy change and will help move China more deeply into global markets and ease tension with China’s trade partners.”
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