–Senate Majority Leader Says China Currency Bill Is ‘Jobs Bill’
–House GOP, Obama Admin Remains Cool to Currency Bill

By John Shaw

WASHINGTON (MNI) – Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Monday
evening the Senate will take up currency legislation next week and
predicted that it will pass the Senate easily.

At a briefing with a Senate Democratic leaders following the
passage of legislation to end the spending bill impasse, Reid said the
next items on the agenda are trade matters and he put the China currency
bill at the top of the list.

“China trade (legislation) is a jobs bill,” Reid said.

He said he “feel very comfortable we’re going to pass it,” in the
Senate.

Last week, Sen. Chuck Schumer and a bipartisan group of about a
half dozen senators said they were ready to move forward with a
revamped China currency bill.

Among other things, the bill would clarify current law to allow the
Commerce Department to impose countervailing duties on Chinese goods to
offset the effect of the country’s currency policies.

With the legislation, countervailing duties would be available to
any U.S. industry that could demonstrate it has been “materially
injured” by imports from the country with the undervalued currency.

Schumer said last week that the Obama administration opposes the
bill, but he would not say if it would veto the bill if it ever reached
the president’s desk.

“Ask them,” he said.

House Republican leaders have expressed deep skepticism about bills
directed at China’s currency regime, arguing this is a too narrow
approach to the U.S. trade relationship with China.

Schumer has predicted that currency bills directed at China would
pass the Senate in several recent years and it has not occurred.

The legislation requires Treasury to develop a biannual report to
Congress that identifies two categories of currencies: a general
category of “fundamentally misaligned currencies” based on objective
criteria and a smaller group of “fundamentally misaligned currencies for
priority action” that reflect misaligned currencies caused by clear
policy actions by the relevant government.”

** Market News International Washington Bureau: (202) 371-2121 **

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