A majority of US House members wrote President Barack Obama Thursday urging him to act against currency manipulation by nations like Japan, saying the tactics were “distorting the entire global economy.”
The bipartisan effort comes as the United States negotiates the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a Pacific free trade agreement between 11 countries that would account for nearly 40 percent of the global economy.
“Exchange rates strongly influence trade flows, and in recent years currency manipulation has contributed to the US trade deficit and cost us American jobs,” said the group of 226 members of Congress in their letter.
“Incorporating currency provisions in the agreement will strengthen our ability to combat these unfair trade practices and help to create a level playing field for American workers, businesses, and farmers.”
They said up to a million US jobs have been “shipped overseas” as a result of currency manipulation alone.
And “the consequences are not singular to the US; misaligned currencies are distorting the entire global economy,” they said.
None of the top four House lawmakers, including Speaker John Boehner and Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi, signed the letter, but heavy hitters like Budget Committee chairman Paul Ryan and the committee’s ranking Democrat Chris Van Hollen did.
With Japan virtually certain of joining the TPP negotiations next year, lawmakers singled out the island nation as a primary currency manipulator, particularly with the “market-distorting” practices of Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
“Japan has a well-documented history of manipulating the value of the yen to help its exporters,” said senior House Democrat John Dingell, who on Friday will become the longest-serving lawmaker in the history of the US Congress.
“We cannot allow this practice to continue if Japan is to enjoy the benefits of free trade with the United States.”
Abe has embarked on a platform of economic reforms — including aggressive central bank easing which has sharply weakened the yen — that has become known as “Abenomics.”
The House letter to Obama came just as Abe told AFP in an interview that his policies were “the only way” to fix the world’s third biggest economy.
Those comments came days after the International Monetary Fund warned of downside risks to Tokyo’s ballooning national debt.
US lawmakers urge Obama to act on currency manipulation
