Political Quotes

“I think it is important to understand as well that the pegged currency isn't the only tool China is using to create an unlevel playing field against American products. Another is that they use something economists call financial repression. That is a fancy word for artificially lowering the interest rates on savings on a level below inflation. So if you are a Chinese citizen and you are saving money and the inflation rate is 5 percent, the interest rate you are going to get is going to be less than 5 percent. It is a way, essentially, of taxing the entire nation, and then the Chinese Government takes those funds and they give massive subsidies to manufacturing in China. Those subsidies include grants, and they include below-market loans. So on top of the huge tariff on American products which basically stems from this currency manipulation, we have these huge subsidies to domestic manufacturers who export to the United States. China is supposed to disclose those subsidies under WTO, but it may come as a surprise to some in this Chamber that China doesn't do it. They only did it one year, in 2006. So they are taking the structure that was set up and they are abusing it. This adds to, on top of the currency manipulation, further driving jobs out of the United States, discriminating against U.S. products.…”