US drops plans to press China over yuan value

[dArKeR]

US Trade Representative Robert Zoellick on Wednesday appeared to squash American manufacturers' hopes for the US to challenge China's exchange rate policy at the WTO.

The Bush administration has leaned on China to move to a flexible exchange rate but has resisted taking any stronger action to persuade it to do that.

A coalition of US manufacturers, farmers, and labor groups known as the Fair Currency Alliance wants the Bush administration to challenge China's exchange rate at the WTO.

They claim that Beijing's nine-year-old practice of pegging the yuan at 8.28 to the dollar gives Chinese exporters an unfair trade advantage by artificially depressing the price of their goods by as much as 40 percent.

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/worldbiz/archives/2004/02/27/2003100356

Bush is a spineless and moralless leader! RESIGN!!

[I AM SPARTACUS]

1. sniff! sniff! ...is that WAFFLES I smell cooking...???

pot, meet kettle...kettle, meet pot...

[Barkley]

2. Wal*Mart is China's 8th largest trading partner; ahead of the U.K. and

Russia.

The cheap yuan is one of the reasons they're able to do it.

Sooner or later this yuan-dollar pegging will unravel. Argentina pegged its currency to the dollar and it eventually led to economic turmoil.

This policy also ties our economic well-being to China. Wal*Mart is the largest employer in the U.S. A major financial crisis involving the yuan in China (or even China and Taiwan) will be immediately felt in America.

[Crachet2004]

3. I heard Don Evans (Commerce) quoted as saying...

"China represents exciting possibilities for monetary expansion", or something pretty close to that. Evans doesn't get as much attention as other administration flaks, but may be the one selling us out the worst.

It's complicated, I know, but why is it better for a Commerce Secretary to be worried about expanding the supply of dollars worldwide, than finding markets for American goods and services? To me, this is very short term thinking-and dangerous.

And how smart is it to build up China (an authoritarian regime), which has four or five times our population...into an economic juggernaut nobody can compete with? Their labor will always be cheaper than ours!

When our corporations look at China, they like the authoritarianism and cheap labor. The myth is that once their economy is built up, it will be a huge market for American goods and services. Why anyone would believe that is beyond me. They will always be able to provide for themselves domestically at a far lower price than anything we can export to them.

Trade imbalances being what they are, they evidently send us goods and we send them dollars. India sends us services...and we send them dollars. How can this go on? Eventually, it will blow up, I think, and hurt everyone. BUT, when the balloon goes up, China will have most of the means of production and all we will have is, what, a printing press? Thanks a lot Don Evans.

[dArKeR]

4. I honestly believe the Corps. want a Communist Gov. system in the USA

In China, if a worker is killed because of a factory accident the Corp. just pays cash directly to the family and this is the complete/no appeal system of remedy. To the amount of about US$500 to 1000. (this varies in diff. areas and may have changed recently.)

Are Dem. leaders stupid? Why don't the Dem. associate the Bush Adm. system equal to that of Communism?

[Crachet2004]

5. It isn't they are stupid so much...

as it is they are bought too! Democrats aren't pure in this matter, though probably not as bad as the GOP. Right now, tainted though they be, the Democrat Party is our only hope for a remedy. And such a stink is being made over jobs going to India and China that, if we win, something will have to be done-IMHO.

Funny how it wasn't until whitecollar, proffesional jobs started leaving for India that much was said.

I think a groundswell of anticorporatism and anti oneworld is rising in this country that will demand satisfaction in the political arena.

I am far from being a socialist, but the corporatist/one world agenda cannot be allowed to come to full fruition, without taking into accout the needs of people-and I don't mean just the shareholders!

[dArKeR]

7. Democrat Party is our only hope for a remedy

That's the point. If I were a radical fundimentalist moralist I'd vote for Nader or Dean but we have to honestly look at the near destruction of the United States and the World in the hands of The Bush/Republican Crime Family. So I rationalize the bastardization of my moral values by saying, 'to accomplish 50% of my moral goals a Democratic must be elected immediately then we can work on promoting Dean's and Nader's moral values into America.' Because a slam dunk on Dean or Nader is going to fail and we all will die.

[Crachet2004]

8. I couldn't agree more...

Howard said today he is establishing an organization to reform the democrat party, from within, I guess. Probably the best way. Corporate influence needs driven back to the GOP, and from there, into the sea!

If we destroy the Democrats for not being perfect...well we have already had a preview of what will happen, the last 3 yrs!

[uhhuh]

9. ENOUGH!!!!

To post #7 & #8:


IT IS NOT THE DEMOCRAT PARTY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I see the letters "i" and "c" throughout your posts! USE THEM!!!

This is not a small point, any more than saying "nig**r" and negro, don't make a difference, as long as people know what you're talking about.

RWingers have made a conscious attempt to redinfine and disparage our party to the point of deciding what we will be called, and YOU ARE HELPING THEM!!!!

Thank you for your attention.


This public service announcement has been brought to you by a proud member of the DEMOCRATIC Party.

[Crachet2004]

10. If you don't like it, don't read it.

I am a democrat. The party's members are democrats. As far as I am concerned, it is the Democrat Party...just the way we say it, where I come from. I am also fairly liberal, by the way...which is another term that has been demonized. You, I suppose are a progressive? Fine with me...but I think it is more to the point to name ourselves and fight back when others try to smear us, than to knuckle under to the other side. They won't take away from me what I am. And neither will you.

I am a democrat and a liberal and proud of it.

Deal with it.

[Barkley]

12. "exciting possibilities for monetary expansion" means

China is buying U.S. debt in the form of bonds. Japan is also a major purchaser of US debt.

This arrangement eases "monetary expansion" in the U.S. because the U.S. doesn't need to have high interest rates in order to sell our debt.

Lowering interest rates expands the money supply in the U.S. economy.

[seemslikeadream]

6. Well Uncle Bill Bush just sold $13 million radar gear to China

to upgrade communist China's fleet of fighter jets -- you know the kind that force down U.S. spy planes.

http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2004/02/27/120.html

[Disturbed]

11. Dems

The Dems need to start being Dems again. The Dem party needs a radical reform movement. Being Repub. Lite is aiding and abetting the Repubs. Trash NAFTA and it variations and the WTO. Start fresh with fair trade. Punish outsourcing and reward companies that stay in the USA. Close all tax incentives to companies offshoring.