[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 166 (Wednesday, November 2, 2011)]
[House]
[Pages H7213-H7214]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     CHINESE CURRENCY MANIPULATION

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Indiana (Mr. Visclosky) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. VISCLOSKY. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to address the issue of 
Chinese currency manipulation.
  In northwest Indiana, the steel industry provides middle class jobs 
and economic security. It supplies the products with which a strong 
economy can be built and a powerful national defense maintained.
  China understands the value of steel and a strong manufacturing base 
and has aggressively acted to support and subsidize its domestic 
industries. For example, China has acted contrary to international 
trading standards in order to help their domestic manufacturers by 
routinely manipulating its currency in order to keep prices low on its 
finished products.
  As an effect, China's steel production has more than doubled since 
2003, while U.S. production has dropped by nearly 40 percent. We have 
also lost a third of our manufacturing jobs as China's manufacturing 
sector continues to grow, nourished by that country's blatant disregard 
of international law and the abusive consequences visited on other 
nations and people, most importantly, those who live and want to work 
in the United States of America.
  For example, it is estimated that China has devalued its currency 
anywhere between 12 and 50 percent, giving its own exports a government 
subsidy

[[Page H7214]]

and, in effect, taxing American-made imports. This policy has cost the 
U.S. upwards of 2.5 million manufacturing jobs over the last decade and 
a staggering annual trade deficit of as much as $273 billion.
  The Chinese have dialogued and dialogued and dialogued for years 
about allowing their currency to appreciate but have continued the 
practice of devaluing it. Our Nation is facing a jobs crisis, and we 
can no longer afford to stand for this destructive policy.
  H.R. 639, the Currency Reform for Fair Trade Act, would address the 
issue of this manipulation by recognizing in law what we already know, 
that currency misalignment is an export subsidy. The measure would take 
commonsense steps to ensure our Treasury Department appropriately 
identifies countries that engage in this unfair policy and allow the 
United States to place countervailing duties on imports from offending 
nations.
  This act has 230 cosponsors, more than enough to pass the House. In 
fact, just over a year ago, drawing on support from American labor and 
manufacturing, the House supported a similar bill. On September 23, 
2010, the House approved the Currency Reform for Fair Trade Act by an 
overwhelming bipartisan vote of 348-79. Unfortunately, the Senate 
failed to act. More than 260 of the Members who voted in favor of that 
measure remain in the House. In this Congress, in October, the other 
body did pass a similar measure by a bipartisan vote of 63-35. It is 
time for the House to pass this bill.
  Those who oppose efforts to punish China for its unfair trade 
policies insist this measure would start a so-called trade war. We are 
in a war, a war for jobs, and we are losing. China continues to fight 
to win jobs while America's Government dawdles. This cannot continue.
  According to a report by the Economic Policy Institute, titled, 
``Unfair China Trade Costs Local Jobs,'' thanks to our trade imbalance 
with China, 2.4 million jobs were lost in the United States between 
2001 and 2008.
  Unfortunately, currency manipulation is far from the only trade-
disrupting policy practiced by China. This summer, the New American 
Foundation convened a task force led by Leo Gerard of the United 
Steelworkers and Leo Hindrey of New America, and published a report. 
The report they released further confirms the myriad of activities that 
China engaged in that undermine our jobs.
  China employs a complex and far-reaching set of industrial and 
mercantile policies. Environmental and labor rules that we take for 
granted are rare to nonexistent in China. China disregards intellectual 
property protections such as trademarks, copyrights, and patents and 
then steals technology from us and other countries around the world at 
an annual cost of hundreds of billions of dollars. It does this, in 
part, by shamelessly forcing foreign companies to divulge intellectual 
property as a price for market access.
  Further, China uses state secret laws to protect commercial interests 
and is pursuing a policy of indigenous innovation whereby it 
manufactures and maneuvers to increase the domestic production of high 
value-added goods.
  The House must pass and act on the Chinese currency manipulation 
bill.

                          ____________________