Eight former US trade representatives and commerce secretaries have implored the leadership on Capitol Hill not to use unilateral legislation to force China to revalue its currency.
The letter, which was sent to leaders of the Democrats and Republicans in the House of Representatives and the Senate, is a last-minute intervention in the congressional debate about how best to deal with Beijing and comes as Barack Obama, the president, criticised China’s currency and trade policies.
The currency letter’s signatories include US trade representatives from both Democratic and Republican administrations, including Mickey Kantor, US trade representative under President Bill Clinton in the mid-1990s, Charlene Barshefsky, his successor who served between 1997-2001, and Susan Schwab, who was trade representative for the last four years of the Bush administration.