{"id":470818,"date":"2010-03-25T09:00:25","date_gmt":"2010-03-25T13:00:25","guid":{"rendered":"tag:www.economist.com,21005579"},"modified":"2010-03-25T09:00:25","modified_gmt":"2010-03-25T13:00:25","slug":"the-immovable-object","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/470818","title":{"rendered":"The immovable object"},"content":{"rendered":"

THIS<\/a> is one of the least surprising lede’s I can recall reading:<\/p>\n

\n

Despite mounting pressure in Congress for the Obama administration to declare China<\/span> a currency manipulator, the Chinese government is giving no indication that it will change its exchange rate policy.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

One might be tempted to assign some causation between the “mounting pressure” and the “no indication”. I don’t know why anyone in Washington or elsewhere would think that China would like to be seen as succumbing to American demands. If everyone agrees that revaluation is in China’s interest, the smart thing to do would be to sit back quietly and allow them come to this on their own terms.<\/p>\n

The unstoppable force of the world’s dimmest deliberative body disagrees:<\/p>\n

\n

Lindsey Graham<\/span>, Republican of South Carolina, and Charles E. Schumer<\/span>, Democrat of New York, have introduced legislation that would effectively compel the Treasury to cite the Chinese currency for \u201cmisalignment.\u201d…<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re fed up,\u201d Mr. Graham said on Tuesday. \u201cChina\u2019s mercantilist policies are hurting the rest of the world, not just America. It helped create the global recession<\/span> that we\u2019re in. The Chinese want to be treated as a developing country, but they\u2019re a global giant, the leading exporter in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Senate bill would let the Commerce Department retaliate against currency misalignment by imposing duties or tariffs. \u201cThe only thing that will make China move is tough legislation,\u201d Mr. Schumer said.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Evidence, please! What indication do we have that imposing tariffs on China will lead to something other than Chinese retaliation?<\/p>\n

Fortunately, in the House of Representatives, cooler heads are in front of the mic:<\/p>\n

\n

At a Ways and Means Committee hearing Wednesday, its chairman, Representative Sander M. Levin, Democrat of Michigan, said of the currency policy: \u201cLike so many other trade issues, it gets caught up in the polarization that grips trade issues \u2014 free trade vs. protectionism<\/span> \u2014 a grip that I have believed harmful and reject.\u201d<\/p>\n

Similarly, the top Republican on the committee, Representative Dave Camp of Michigan, said it would be better for the United States to work through the Group of 20<\/span> meetings and the International Monetary Fund<\/span> to persuade China to reform its banking and financial sectors, open its markets and improve protection of intellectual property.<\/p>\n

\u201cFocusing on the currency valuation issue to the exclusion of the others is more likely to lead to collective frustration than to any improvement in the health of the critical U.S.-Chinese economic relationship,\u201d Mr. Camp said.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Indeed. The way to approach a recalcitrant state is not to steadily turn up the heat, even as no progress is made. It’s to evaluate costs and benefits, and proceed to build the institutional capacity and support to address the dispute. Trying to get tough and back China into a corner will not end well.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

THIS is one of the least surprising lede’s I can recall reading: Despite mounting pressure in Congress for the Obama administration to declare China a currency manipulator, the Chinese government is giving no indication that it will change its exchange rate policy. One might be tempted to assign some causation between the “mounting pressure” and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4534,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-470818","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/470818","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4534"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=470818"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/470818\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=470818"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=470818"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=470818"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}