Bipartisan group of lawmakers to reintroduce Chinese currency bill

A bipartisan group of lawmakers are gearing up to reintroduce legislation that aims to deal with China’s approach to its currency.

Rep. Sandy Levin (D-Mich.), the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) and others are scheduled to appear at a Thursday news conference to discuss the measure, a version of which overwhelmingly passed the House last year.

The bill the House approved last Congress would have allowed the government more authority to slap tariffs on countries that undervalue their currency. 

Critics have charged that Beijing does just that, to the tune of 25 to 40 percent — giving its exports an unfair advantage. For his part, Levin exhorted the Obama administration to be more assertive with China at a House Ways and Means hearing Wednesday.

The move to reintroduce the legislation — which is also supported by Reps. Jim McDermott (D-Wash.) and Tim Murphy (R-Pa.) — comes just days after the Treasury Department declined to name China a currency manipulator, a decision that disappointed some lawmakers. In a report to Congress, Treasury said China had indicated it would be more flexible with the exchange rate, but added that the country needed to do more to appreciate the renminbi.

In January, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and other Democratic senators signaled they would introduce legislation that could lead to higher tariffs for China.

The House, then controlled by Democrats, passed the Chinese currency legislation in September, with more than half of the Republicans in the chamber voting for it. But the measure, which would have affected billions of dollars in goods, never received a vote in the Senate.