On the recordSeptember 16, 2010
yesterday, I filed a report on a trip which I made to China, Vietnam, and Taiwan, but I did not have an opportunity to come to the Senate floor to discuss it. I do so today on a number of the highlights of the trip. In Beijing, we met with the head of the banking department, who is identified in the filed report, to talk about a number of subjects, the centerpiece of which was currency manipulation. We reviewed the tremendous trade imbalance between the United States and China, much of which is occasioned by manipulating their currency. Legislation has been introduced and is pending in the Congress, which I have cosponsored, but it has not gone anyplace. There has been comment made by the Secretary of the Treasury and the President himself about currency manipulation, but it has not done very much to correct a very bad situation. The Chinese have suggested officially that they would be willing to make some modifications, but what they have done so far has been very little. In the conversation with the head Chinese banking official, he didn't give any ground, really. I also discussed with him the issues of subsidies and dumping, which have been rampant, taking away thousands of jobs in the United States.
