Washington, July 18: A group of US senators has argued that china has deliberately undervalued its currency to drive down the price of its exports, and called on the administration to take "appropriate action." The bipartisan group of senators said China's export gains have come at the expense of us manufacturers, whose goods are not able to compete against the Chinese on world or domestic markets.

"Anyone who's read the newspaper lately knows that the manufacturing industry's been getting killed," senator Charles Schumer said yesterday. "Our manufacturing losses have been staggering."

The New York Democrat joined with Republicans Elizabeth Dole of North Carolina and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, and Democrat Evan Bayh of Indiana in sending a letter to treasury secretary John Snow urging action.


"The Chinese Yuan has been tightly pegged to the US Dollar in a range of 8.276 to 8.280 per dollar since 1994," the senators wrote in a letter dated yesterday.

"However, given china's enormous growth since 1994, this fixed level most likely does not reflect its true value."

The senators note in their letter that World Trade Organisation and international monetary fund rules prohibit currency manipulation as a method of gaining an edge in the export market.

The letter cited the US trade deficit with China of $ 110 billion in the 12 months which ended in May, nearly one-fourth of the total US trade gap.
The lawmakers said that the US administration should "determine if China's currency is undervaled and take the appropriate action."

Bureau Report