Trade Negotiators Need to Address Exchange Rate Manipulation

Negotiators for a Trans-Pacific Partnership Free Trade Agreement need to address currency manipulation when they meet March 4th in Singapore.  Deliberate manipulation of foreign exchange rates by a number of countries is one of the most egregious of all unfair trade practices today.  By maintaining an artificially low exchange rate, a country in effect imposes an extra charge on imports (equivalent to a tariff) and also gains an unfair trade advantage in the U.S. and third country markets.  While this practice has long been recognized as an unfair trade practice, international trade rules have no effective provisions to address this issue.  The U.S. wants the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement to be a template for future trade agreements.  To achieve this goal, currency manipulation must be addressed in the agreement.

To read the entire paper, click on the attachment below.