US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said on Wednesday that he
told two legislators that threatening tariffs is "not the right way
to negotiate with China."
Paulson met Senators Charles Schumer and Lindsey Graham a day
earlier to persuade them to delay a vote on a bill to impose
tariffs on Chinese imports, if Beijing refuses to revalue the yuan.
The senators have requested time to consider their decision.
"I'm doing my best job to make the case to Chuck Schumer and
Lindsey Graham that their bill wouldn't help anything, and that's
not the right way to negotiate with China," Paulson said in a
speech to the National Association of Manufacturers in Washington.
"I've asked them to give us more time."
Schumer, a New York Democrat, and Graham, a South Carolina
Republican, are among legislators who say that China artificially
depresses the value of its currency, the renminbi, to make its
products cheaper on world markets. They argue that the policy is
costing US manufacturers sales and jobs.
After meeting Paulson, Schumer and Graham said they needed "a
few days" to decide whether to push ahead with a vote this week on
the bill, which calls for a 27.5 percent duty on all Chinese
imports.
Both acknowledged it's unlikely to become law because the House
of Representatives is not considering similar legislation. The Bush
administration is opposed to the bill as are most business
groups.
Zhou Xiaochuan, governor of People's Bank of China, said last
week that China plans to end exchange controls on the renminbi and
open its financial markets, but gave no timetable.
"We will continue our efforts to develop our financial market
and widen it gradually, but will push for the free convertibility
of the renminbi in a stable manner," he said in Singapore on the
sidelines of annual meeting of the International Monetary Fund and
the World Bank.
The remarks were interpreted by some in the market as a sign
that the government would soon make moves on the currency
issue.
Paulson, in a speech to several hundred manufacturing officials,
is reported to have said: "One of the issues we always have when we
talk about success with China - we have the same objectives, we
have the same principles, but the question is speed."
Paulson and Vice-Premier Wu Yi agreed on September 20 in Beijing
to meet twice a year for talks on economic relations, the first
such arrangement between the two countries. Paulson said he hoped
the US could use the new dialogue to convince China to allow its
currency to appreciate and open its capital markets.
The first meeting under the agreement, called the China-US
Economic Dialogue, will occur this year in China. The following
meeting, to take place next spring, will be held in the US, Paulson
said. Talks will focus on "long-term" issues, such as helping China
create innovative companies and protecting the environment.
"All that we are accomplishing here is putting a process in
place where we might be more successful than we might otherwise
have been," he told the group. "Time will tell how successful we'll
be."
(China Daily September 29, 2006)