The Bush administration is warning China that it must do more to let the value of its currency be set by market forces. Iowa U.S. Senator Charles Grassley this week introduced legislation he says would give the U.S. government stronger measures to get that accomplished. Grassley, the chair of the Senate Finance Committee, says China hasn’t done enough to fulfill a promise made last summer to let their currency “float.”
They’ve hardly moved, he says, and the only movement was back in July. Grassley says the legislation’s long overdue. A couple tools put into the bill that affect China as well as other countries include requiring the approval of the World Trade Organization to be labeled a “market-based economy.” He says the US agreed, and he thinks it’ll be a big step toward getting what China’s been asked to do. On Wednesday, Treasury Secretary Timothy Adams told a congressional committee that getting China to move forward is his department’s top priority.