A group of sixty U.S. senators on Tuesday asked the Obama administration to consider the issue of currency manipulation as a part of major trade negotiations among Asia and Pacific nations.
A bipartisan majority of the US Senate demanded that US President Barack Obama address “currency manipulation” in trade negotiations with 12 Pacific nations, throwing up a potential roadblock as the talks approach their final stages.
A majority of congressional lawmakers are pressing the Obama administration to crack down on currency manipulation as part of negotiations on an Asia-Pacific trade deal.
The American Automotive Policy Council, a trade group representing the Big Three automakers, is pushing back hard against Japan's new place at the negotiating table for one of the most comprehensive free-trade deals in years.
Initially conceived as an 11-country bloc when it was announced in Nov. 2011, the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement aims to create a free-trade group with countries such as Vietnam, New Zealand and Malaysia. In July, during the 18th round of negotiations, Japan joined the talks, and the countries involved ambitiously hope to wrap up the discussions in October.
The American Automotive Policy Council, a trade group representing the Big Three automakers, is pushing back hard against Japan’s new place at the negotiating table for one of the most comprehensive free-trade deals in years.
Initially conceived as an 11-country bloc when it was announced in Nov. 2011, the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement aims to create a free-trade group with countries such as Vietnam, New Zealand and Malaysia. In July, during the 18th round of negotiations, Japan joined the talks, and the countries involved ambitiously hope to wrap up the discussions in October.
A proposed international trade treaty involving Pacific nations including Japan could threaten the domestic auto recovery here and in other industrial Midwestern states if it isn't smartly negotiated, the Big Three U.S. auto companies and Ohio senators Rob Portman and Sherrod Brown said.
The city of Detroit has temporarily tapped out. In this case, municipal bankruptcy is more than just relief from debt obligations; it represents a huge psychic wound for the heart of American industry. Michigan makes things. So how could it have gotten this rough?
It’s bad, but there is hope. The Big Three, only a few years out of their deathbeds, are back in the black. GM, Ford, and Chrysler have produced profits that measure in the billions, despite the prewritten obituaries that appeared in 2009.
Despite their turnaround, the Big Three still face significant hurdles in getting their goods into Japan, and face import competition subsidized by currency manipulation. In fact, imports from all countries, including the U.S., account for only 6 percent of Japan’s auto market. Meanwhile, America has one of the most open auto markets in the world.
A senior House Democrat wants Japan to earn any further reductions on auto tariffs by opening up its market to U.S. auto imports.
House Ways and Means Committee ranking member Sandy Levin (Mich.) called for a "new and more assertive approach to the problem" of solving Japan's longstanding restrictions on imports of foreign cars.
"Negotiations to open the Japanese auto market have repeatedly and totally failed in the past," he said Tuesday during a trade event at the Peterson Institute.
A senior U.S. lawmaker on Tuesday urged the Obama administration to push for tough rules on opening the U.S. market to more Japanese autos and to take a firm line in free trade talks against currency manipulation, as Detroit automakers and workers turned up the heat on the White House.
The demand from Representative Sander Levin, the top Democrat on the House of Representatives Ways and Means Committee, highlighted the difficulty President Barack Obama may face in getting the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership pact through Congress, unless he responds to concerns about the agreement among many of his own party members.
More than 80,000 hourly and salaried U.S. auto workers signed a petition urging Congress to oppose approving a free-trade deal including Japan without significant changes on auto policy and currency by the world’s third-largest economy.
The petitions arriving at Capitol Hill offices Tuesday from employees at General Motors Co., Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler Group LLC strongly urge Congress to oppose completing the Trans-Pacific Partnership with Japan unless currency manipulation and non-tariff barriers are addressed.