Continued currency manipulation is one of five complaints the Washington, D.C.-based National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) currently has with China's performance since the People's Republic secured World Trade Organization membership in December 2001. Estimates of the undervaluation of the yuan, the Chinese currency, against the U.S. dollar range from 25% to 50% and "this currency undervaluation gives Chinese-made products a substantial price advantage in the U.S. and other foreign markets and limits the ability of U.S.-made products to compete in the Chinese marketplace," NAM said in September 6 comments to the Bush administration's interagency trade staff policy committee. The panel is chaired by U.S. Trade Representative Rob Portman.
The NAM also told the committee its members believe that some Chinese companies are receiving price-lowering financial aid, that large-scale product counterfeiting and piracy continue, that Chinese technical standards discriminate against U.S. products and that Chinese distribution rights lack clarity.
