Max Baucus: “Clearly, currency fluctuation certainly in the short term distorts trade almost to the magnitude which he suggested, a…”

“Clearly, currency fluctuation certainly in the short term distorts trade almost to the magnitude which he suggested, a 30 to 40 percent differential. It is also true that, as imperfect as markets are in the long-term, the relative economic strength of countries tends to reflect the value of a country's currency--not entirely but tends to. There have been times when the dollar is low; there are times when the dollar is high. It is very difficult to write into an agreement how to manage currency fluctuations, extremely difficult, particularly with larger countries such as the United States, Japan, the EU, with a single-currency market. If the United States were to peg exchange rates vis-a-vis those other countries, it would be difficult for those countries to agree. I doubt that they would. Japan tends to like a low yen. It kind of likes the United States having a high dollar. I doubt that Japan would want to address exchange rates in a trade agreement.”