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Hagan denounces Chinese currency manipulation on Senate floor
Story Date: 10/6/2011
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Source: PRESS RELEASE, 10/5/11
United States Senator Kay R. Hagan (NC) today stood on the Senate floor and called for 'Washington to draw a hard line, act now, and get tough on China’s currency manipulation.’ Unfair currency manipulation costs American jobs. The Senate voted 79-19 on Monday to push the bill through a key procedural hurdle. The next vote on the Currency Exchange Rate Oversight Act of 2011, cosponsored by a bipartisan group of Senators, including Hagan and Richard Burr, is expected Thursday morning.
“The effects of China’s currency manipulation are damaging to our economy,” said Hagan. “The results of this distorted arrangement are harrowing: Reduced American wages. Decreased GDP. And lost American Jobs. North Carolina is a manufacturing state. But we’re hurting. North Carolina has lost over 107,000 jobs due to trade with China.
“What [North Carolinians and Americans] need is for Washington to draw a hard line, act now, and get tough on China’s currency manipulation. The Currency Exchange Rate Oversight Act is straightforward. If the Treasury Department, using objective criteria, determines that the value of a currency is fundamentally misaligned, it will trigger a process to correct that unfair misalignment. In other words, it allows the United States to use every tool in our toolbox, including countervailing duties, to ensure that American workers and companies are competing on a level playing field.”
According to a recent report from the Economic Policy Institute, North Carolina has lost over 107,000 jobs due to unfair trade with China. The nation has lost approximately 6 million manufacturing jobs, and seen 57,000 manufacturing plants shut down forever. The textile industry lost over 92,000 jobs to unfair trade with China between 2001 and 2010. Currency manipulation has been a major contributor to that job loss. By manipulating the value of its currency, China has made its own products cheap in the United States, and made American products more expensive in Chinese markets.
On September 22, Hagan joined Senator Richard Burr and a bipartisan group of senators in unveiling The Currency Exchange Rate Oversight Act of 2011. The bill makes changes to U.S. trade law to counter the economic harm to U.S. manufacturers caused by currency manipulation. It would ensure tools, such as the use of countervailing duties on countries that manipulate their currency, may be used to counter the economic harm to U.S. manufacturers caused by currency manipulation.
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