Obama vs China? Really?
By:
Yesterday, Obama vowed to take a tougher line with China on currency and trade issues. Today, the Communist country said the value of Chinese yuan was at a reasonable level and that China was not pursuing a trade surplus with the U.S. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu said: "At the moment... the level of the yuan is close to reasonable and balanced." completely dismissing Obamas vow.
Stressing the need for dialogue between the two countries for smoothening Sino-US ties, he expressed the hope that the U.S. would take an objective view of bilateral trade and stick to a level playing field.
Earlier, at a meeting with Senate Democrats in Washington Obama was specifically asked whether the US would cut ties with Beijing over trade disputes. He said steps would be taken to ensure that other national currencies did not hold an unfair advantage over the US dollar. However, he said it would be a mistake for America to become protectionist and asserted that he would personally monitor whether China and other countries adhered to trade agreements.
"The approach that we're taking is to try to get much tougher about the enforcement of existing rules, putting constant pressure on China and other countries to open up their markets in reciprocal ways," Obama said.
Relations between China and the U.S. have strained lately, following Washington's move to sell arms to Taiwan and Obama's decision to meet Tibetan leader the Dalai Lama during his planned visit to South Asia. US companies have all along been accusing China of artificially undervaluing the yuan to ensure a steady stream of exports worldwide. Trade figures released in December showed that China was set to overtake Germany as the largest exporter. In addition, China also stated they would be reducing the number of their imports.
