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Saturday, March 20, 2010
China Wants D.C. To Ease Pressure Over Yuan
By Joe Mcdonald
Associated Press
BEIJING — China is sending a Cabinet official to Washington in a bid to defuse trade tensions, the government said Friday, as it called on U.S. leaders to cool the "politicization and emotionalization" of a currency dispute.
A deputy commerce minister, Zhong Shan, will go to Washington on Wednesday to meet with American trade, commerce and Treasury officials and members of Congress, the Commerce Ministry said. It said they would discuss the Sino-U.S. trade gap and trade disputes.
Beijing faces demands by some U.S. lawmakers for President Barack Obama to have China declared a currency manipulator in a Treasury Department report due out in April. That could set the stage for possible trade sanctions.
Critics say China's yuan is undervalued by up to 40 percent, giving its exporters an unfair advantage and swelling its trade surplus.
"A lot of problems can be properly solved so long as we can avoid politicization and emotionalization," a Commerce Ministry official, He Ning, told reporters. "It should not be one side pressing the other side."
He warned that dialogue with Washington might be harmed by "external disturbances" such as this week's letter from 130 American lawmakers calling on Obama to take action.
Premier Wen Jiabao on Sunday denied the yuan is undervalued and other officials have dismissed complaints that exchange-rate controls are the cause of China's multibillion-dollar trade surplus.
Wen promised reforms but said the yuan will be kept at a "stable and balanced" level.
Analysts expect Beijing to allow the yuan to rise gradually this year but say Chinese leaders might be reluctant to act if they might be seen as giving in to U.S. pressure.
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