Monday the U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue (S&ED) begins in Beijing. (See the Treasury Dept fact sheet on the S&ED.) Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner will attend, and meet with their counterparts.
As I have been writing about, China has been cheating. It isn’t fair trade and it isn’t free trade, it’s a one-way street. They are manipulating currency to bring themselves as much as a 40% price advantage. They restrict imports. They have a “Buy China’ policy in many strategic industries. They coerce foreign businesses. The list is long.
You can click here to send a message to Secs. Clinton and Geithner and the Congress, to tell China it is time to start playing by the rules. They need to know that the American public is paying attention.
And they need to know that if the administration doesn’t work it out with the Chinese to stop manipulating their currency, Congress is ready to act. The Graham-Schumer bill, for example, requires the administration to determine whether China is manipulating currency and if it is to spend 180 days working it out with a big tariff on all Chinese goods imposed if they don’t.
Regarding next week’s meeting, China has announced that they will “strive for positive results” from the meetings. Also, today, Beijing won’t yield over yuan,
Chinese officials said on Thursday Beijing would not yield to global calls to end the yuan’s 22-month peg against the United States dollar, damping speculation that next week’s high-level bilateral talks between China and the US would trigger appreciation of the Chinese currency.
No so positive a result. Not so much striving. Tough week ahead.
