News Release

October 11, 2011

The Coalition for a Prosperous America (CPA) applauds Senate passage of the Currency Exchange Rate Oversight Act of 2011 (S. 1619) tonight at 6:28 pm et.  The final vote tally was 63 to 35 in favor.  (In comparison, the first cloture vote on the bill was approved 79 to 19 while the second cloture vote was approved 62 to 38).

“This vote is the first step towards making the United States a successful trading nation,” said Brian O’Shaughnessy, Chairman of Revere Copper Products and Chief Co-Chair of CPA.  “The U.S. Senate has realized that our companies don’t compete with foreign companies.  We compete with foreign nations.  It is imperative for the U.S. to neutralize the trade tactics of foreign governments like China which predatory policies drastically subsidize their exports to the U.S.”

The Currency Exchange Rate Oversight Reform Act would boost U.S. job creation and investment by discouraging trading partners from illegally undervaluing their currencies to gain an unfair advantage.  In particular, the new Senate bill provides a WTO-consistent manner for U.S. companies and workers to petition the U.S. Department of Commerce directly for the imposition of countervailing duties.  These duties would offset injury caused by imports from any country that subsidizes exports of its products by fundamentally undervaluing its currency.

“Farmers, ranchers and agricultural firms currently face a 25-40% tariff on exports to China due to currency manipulation, artificially increasing the cost of our soybeans, corn, beef and pork to foreign buyers,” said Joseph Logan, CPA’s Co-Chair for Agriculture.  “This bill will help stop that practice so foreign customers will pay a much lower free market price for our products so agricultural producers can sell much more abroad.”

“This legislation begins to address the unfair trade practices from China that causes our customers to leave the U.S.,” said Bill Jones, President and CEO of Penn United Technologies in Saxonburg, PA.  “Our business depends upon being close to our manufacturing customers who buy our precision manufacturing solutions.  Our customers can grow and employ people in the United States when the currency problem is fixed, which means our company can grow as well.”

CPA members now ask that the House pass The Currency Reform for Fair Trade Act of 2011 (HR 639) which contains the same countervailing/offsetting duty provision as S. 1619.  A majority of House members have co-sponsored that bill.

The Coalition for a Prosperous America is a nonprofit organization representing the interests of 2.7 million households through our agricultural, manufacturing and labor members.