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U.S. NEWSWednesday 11 November

US economists: Trump’s charges against China are obsolete

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks to a crowd of supporters during a cam- China’s increased global the country as an enemy
paign rally in Springfield, Ill. clout. By May of this year, ruled by cunning leaders
the International Monetary bent on stealing U.S. jobs.
(AP Photo/Seth Perlman) Fund declared the yuan “is “This grossly undervalued
no longer undervalued.” yuan gives Chinese ex-
PAUL WISEMAN rency, the yuan, to gain the U.S. Treasury Depart- The Peterson Institute for porters a huge advantage
Associated Press an economic advantage ment, complained that International Economics while imposing the equiva-
WASHINGTON (AP) — Re- over the United States and China kept its currency ar- publishes an interactive lent of a heavy tariff on U.S.
publican presidential can- other countries. Citing the tificially low. And until per- graphic showing which exports to China,” says his
didate Donald Trump’s estimates of unidentified haps 2012, it was probably countries’ currencies are policy paper. “Such cur-
latest attack on China is economists, the real-estate true. But the charge ap- out of whack with econom- rency manipulation, in con-
about three years behind magnate charged that pears outdated now. ic reality, starting with 2008. cert with China’s other un-
the times. “the yuan is undervalued The yuan has risen nearly It shows the yuan being fair practices, has resulted
In a column in The Wall anywhere from 15 percent 5 percent against the U.S. “significantly undervalued” in chronic U.S. trade defi-
Street Journal previewing to 40 percent,” giving Chi- dollar over the past five until mid-2012 and reach- cits, a severe weakening
a policy paper he released nese exporters an unfair years — a period during ing a more or less fair value of the U.S. manufacturing
Tuesday, Trump wrote that price edge in world mar- which most major curren- last year. base and the loss of tens of
“the worst of China’s sins” kets. cies fell against the dollar. “My analysis indicates that millions of American jobs.”
is manipulating its cur- For years, critics, including The rising currency reflects the currency has risen suf- But the rising yuan has
ficiently that it’s now no eroded China’s economic
longer undervalued,” said advantage over the rest
Peterson senior fellow Wil- of the world. In 2007, for in-
liam Cline. stance, China was running
Charging that China is ma- a trade surplus equal to 10
nipulating its currency is “a percent of its gross domes-
good talking point,” Cline tic product — the broadest
said, but “it’s out of date.” measure of economic out-
Trump’s column and policy put. By 2013, its trade sur-
paper on China came just plus was down to 1.9 per-
before the fourth Repub- cent of GDP, according to
lican presidential debate, the World Bank.
as he continues to face China is attempting to
pressure to fill in the broad move its economy, the
strokes of his stated policy world’s second biggest,
goals. away from dependence
He has been criticizing Chi- on exports and often-
na’s currency and trade wasteful investments in real
position for more than a estate, factories and infra-
decade. In his campaign, structure projects such as
he continually describes high-speed rail lines.q

Clinton says she doesn’t back declaration of war against IS

KEN THOMAS ans that the U.S. needs to worked as this threat is,” Islamic State group “put she has opposed the U.S.
Associated Press have a better understand- Clinton said. The Democrat- a bomb on that charter entering a larger ground
DERRY, New Hampshire ing of the threat posed by ic presidential candidate plane, that raises the stakes war in the Middle East to
(AP) — Hillary Rodham Clin- radical Islamic groups. She spoke as some members of not just for the United States combat the rise of Islamic
ton said Tuesday she does said the U.S. also needs to Congress have pushed for but for others.” militants.
not currently support seek- understand the potential a vote on a new authoriza- Clinton has backed the de- As secretary of state, Clin-
ing a declaration of war costs, saying, “if you have tion for the use of military cision by President Barack ton advocated for a more
against the Islamic State, a declaration of war you force as the U.S. military in- Obama to deploy a small aggressive U.S. role in the
citing the diffuse nature of better have a budget that tervention in Iraq and Syria number of special opera- Syrian conflict and has
the threat. backs it up.” have crept forward. tions forces to northern Syr- called for a no-fly zone
Clinton said in response “I’m not sure that makes Clinton also pointed to the ia to work with local ground over the area, a move
to a question at a town sense in fighting a threat recent Russian plane crash, forces in the fight against the Obama administration
hall meeting with veter- that is as diffuse and net- saying if an affiliate of the Islamic State militants. But opposes.q