Opinion: China Needs To Open Markets, Not Float Currency

ByJohn S. McClenahen James M. Zimmerman, chief representative and a partner in the Beijing office of Squires Sanders & Dempsey LLP, an international law firm, believes that the Washington, D.C.-based National Association of Manufacturers (NAM), among others, is wrong in its insistence that China let market forces determine the value of its currency. Indeed, he dismisses such demands from NAM, the Bush administration and some members of Congress as "politically motivated." They "disregard the [disruptive] impact that full convertibility would mean to the Chinese economy," asserts Zimmerman. "What China needs to do is to provide real market access -- and ahead of the WTO [World Trade Organization] timetables agreed upon for accession," he says. "And what the U.S. government and NAM need to do is stop wasting time with the currency issue and demand that trade be liberalized and access be granted for services."