June 06, 2013
David Shepardson

Washington More than half of U.S. House members wrote President Barack Obama on Thursday, urging him to address currency manipulation as part of talks to create a 12-nation free-trade zone called the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

It comes as U.S. automakers have expressed alarm that the Japanese government has been devaluing its currency through a series of central bank moves. A cheaper yen in dollar terms makes Japanese exports to the U.S. less expensive, and U.S. imports to Japan more expensive...

...A trade group representing Detroit’s Big Three automakers praised the letter.

“This letter to the President signed by a majority of the House of Representatives makes clear that there is broad, bipartisan support for addressing currency manipulation in the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement,” said Matt Blunt, president of the American Automotive Policy Council and a former Missouri Republican governor. “Strong, enforceable rules prohibiting currency manipulation must be included in the trade agreement, but before Japan can be allowed to become a TPP partner, it must establish a clear record demonstrating that its domestic auto market is completely open to foreign competition. Anything less will undermine the economic growth and job creation that the U.S. auto industry is currently driving.”

U.S. automakers and the United Auto Workers union have strongly lobbied to keep the world’s third-largest economy out of the talks. They fear that dropping U.S. tariffs on Japanese imports would give Japanese rivals a significant leg up and could lead to the loss of thousands of U.S. auto jobs.

Source
The Detroit News