COMMENTARY | The Senate finally took a definitive step Tuesday to end unfair currency manipulation by the Chinese central bank. Over the objection of President Barack Obama, senators had the courage to slap tariffs on China to remove the trade advantage their currency creates against American manufacturers.
China has ignored official U.S. protests about its currency for years. It has refused to recalculate their national currency, the yuan, to a more favorable exchange rate against the dollar and other major currencies. By holding it at artificially low rates, Chinese products are cheaper to buy and American-made exports are more expensive to sell to Chinese consumers.
Congress agrees on very little these days, but it was good to see an unlikely coalition of Democrats and Republicans join together to advance this bill through the Senate. Sens. Lindsay Graham, R-S.C., and Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, worked both caucuses to gain an overwhelming majority support to apply stiff import tariffs on Chinese products to level the playing field for American manufacturers. That's exactly what they needed to do.
According to a 2004 CBO report, two-thirds of American apparel manufacturing jobs were lost in the preceding 20 years, and that tide hasn't changed. Those losses have not returned in recent years. Other industries have been similarly impacted.
But it may be all in vain.
House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said he will not bring the bill to the floor for a final vote because the Obama administration has not supported it, nor has the Commerce Department made any official declaration of trade violations regarding mainland China.
Brown said the U.S. already was in a trade war with the Chinese and "today we are fighting back." Those are great words to hear from a Democrat, especially when the president won't make a bold statement like that for fear of offending the Chinese.
Americans are too dependent on China. They buy our debt and sell us products that fill every discount store in the country. Each robs American business and industry of much-needed jobs at a time of severe unemployment. Americans need to get back to work. That won't happen until we turn the lights back on in our factories and assembly lines. If currency manipulation is playing a role, then Congress is right to apply a protective tariff.
We need a level trading field so that American products have the same access to Chinese markets as they enjoy here.
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