Anti-China bills follow U.S. trade deficit

The U.S. did this to Japan once and started a war, profitable for corporations, lotsa dead people.
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Published: Feb. 16, 2007 at 10:45 AM

WASHINGTON, Feb. 16 (UPI) -- The record $764 billion U.S. trade deficit has led to bipartisan bills in Congress that could punish China for its exports, a newspaper analysis said Friday.

A bill introduced Tuesday with Republican and Democratic support would revoke China's Permanent Normal Trade Relations status with the United States, The Christian Science Monitor said.

Another bipartisan bill, the Fair Currency Act of 2007, classified China as a currency manipulator in violation of U.S. trade law and threatened to add retaliatory tariffs on Chinese products.

"There was a time 10 years ago when it seemed like globalization was consensual, and there were very few remaining questions about whether it was ... a good thing," global economics expert and Harvard University government Professor Jeffry Frieden says.

The new reality, he says, includes a caveat: Global trade "can make everyone better off, so long as you compensate the losers."

Globalization concerns are not limited to Washington, the newspaper notes.

But the United States, the world's largest economy, has pushed expanding trade for decades and remains a key world influence.