Alabama Congressman Mo Brooks (R-5th District)
WASHINGTON – Alabama 5th District Congressman Mo Brooks (R), along with Tim Murphy (R-PA-18), Sander Levin (D-MI-09), and Tim Ryan (D-OH-13), today announced they will host a bipartisan news conference on Wednesday, March 20th to introduce their Currency Reform for Fair Trade Act, which holds foreign nations accountable for wrongful manipulation of currency exchange rates.
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Here is what Congressman Brooks’ office wrote about the proposed Act.
“Due to wrongful trading practices, Chinese exporters receive a significant price discount against US-made products like steel. By keeping the value of the Renminbi artificially low, the Chinese government unfairly and improperly props up its own exporters at the expense of a free market and American manufacturing jobs. Currency manipulation by China and other foreign countries has led to a massive $315 billion* trade deficit in 2012, and according to the Peterson Institute for International Economics, cost the American economy at least one million jobs.
The Currency Reform For Fair Trade Act holds foreign governments like China accountable for this unfair trading practice by applying a fair and predictable standard for currency misalignment. The legislation gives the Department of Commerce the authority to apply countervailing import duties against unfairly traded imports if a U.S. industry is injured by an undervalued currency.
The bill reverses a current Commerce Department practice that precludes it from treating foreign government currency manipulation as an export subsidy while also directing the department on how to measure subsidies provided to foreign producers through currency undervaluation.
By forcing China to play by the rules, this legislation strengthens the hands of American workers and businesses and helps them compete and succeed in the global marketplace. The legislation empowers American manufacturers and workers to seek remedies under current trade laws when injured by a foreign country’s currency manipulation.”
Congressman Brooks serves on the Foreign Affairs Committee and its Subcommittees on Asia and the Pacific, and Terrorism, Nonproliferation, and Trade.
*Source: U.S. Commerce Department
