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TRADE WARS
CIC says China should reduce dollar assets if Fed stays loose: DJ

China increases US debt holdings
Washington (AFP) Sept 16, 2010 - Chinese holdings of US debt ticked up in July for the first time since April, the Treasury Department said Thursday. China remained the largest holder of US debt, stashing away around 847 billion dollars worth, but was closely followed by Japan which held 821 billion dollars -- the narrowest gap between the two countries in at least a year. Under fierce political scrutiny China has steadily been reducing its holdings of US bonds, which stood at 940 billion dollars in July last year.

by Staff Writers
Beijing (AFP) Sept 16, 2010
The head of China's sovereign wealth fund has said Beijing should reduce dollar assets in its foreign exchange reserves if Washington maintains its loose monetary policy, a report said Thursday.

Lou Jiwei, chairman of the 300-billion-dollar China Investment Corporation, wrote the comments in a book compiled for a conference involving Chinese and US economists that took place in Beijing this week, Dow Jones Newswires reported.

"The timing of the Federal Reserve's exit from the current extremely easy monetary policy is a key factor in determining whether China and other emerging market countries can control their asset bubble," he was quoted as saying.

"For China, the chief means to reduce economic risks are to strengthen regulating the capital inflow, control the liquidity through hedging, monitor relevant assets markets and divert forex reserve to non-dollar assets."

Lou called on the United States to tighten its monetary policy, which he said would be "beneficial to the healthy development of the global economy", the report said.

It was not clear when Lou wrote the piece. An organiser of the conference told Dow Jones that he had submitted it three weeks ago, but the article refers to a December announcement by Washington as recent.

China -- which has the world's largest foreign exchange reserves, worth 2.45 trillion dollars at the end of June -- has invested a large portion of these in US dollar assets, such as safe low-yielding US Treasury bonds.

But amid the financial crisis, it has tried to diversify its investments to improve returns, recently acquiring more South Korean and Japanese government debt.

earlier related report
US takes two China trade cases to WTO
Washington (AFP) Sept 15, 2010 - Trade tensions between the United States and China ratcheted up another notch Wednesday, as Washington called on the WTO to probe unfair Chinese trade practices.

The United States asked the World Trade Organization to investigate China's allegedly unfair treatment of US steel and electronic payment providers, the first step toward sanctions.

"We are concerned that China is breaking its trade commitments to the United States and other WTO partners," US trade representative Ron Kirk said in a statement.

Amid mounting US anger about China's trade policies, Kirk's office said it would ask the WTO for "consultations" about Beijing's policies, a step that could lead to retaliatory measures.

US authorities said China slaps unfair duties on US electrical steel and has not opened up its market in electronic payments.

Beijing claims that US steel had been dumped onto the Chinese market and is subsidized.

The announcement comes on the eve of what is expected to be an acrimonious appearance by Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner before the US Congress.

Facing November elections shaped by voter anger at the sour economy, US lawmakers will grill Geithner on what they charge are China's unfair policies.

Key Senate and House of Representatives committees are weighing bills to impose retaliatory measures against Chinese goods amid accusations that Beijing keeps its currency -- and thereby its exports -- artificially cheap.

The White House's Democratic allies have expressed frustration with both China and US President Barack Obama's administration, and warned that lawmakers may be forced to act unless Washington wrings some concessions from Beijing.

The administration will hope Wednesday's announcement takes some of the sting out of what could become a damaging trade war between two of the world's largest economies.

"These two cases are critical steps forward in our effort to enforce our market access rights in China," said Democratic Senator Max Baucus.

Kirk meanwhile echoed complaints commonly heard on Capitol Hill.

"The duties imposed by China have raised the price of hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of American steel headed into China, with the practical effect of reducing or blocking exports of our steel to that country. China must not abuse WTO procedures to protect its market," said Kirk.

"This case makes clear that the United States will not permit China to threaten American steelworkers' jobs by using anti-dumping and countervailing duty proceedings to harass US exports."

The US announcement also comes after the United Steelworkers union asked US authorities to investigate Chinese subsidies to the green energy sector.

US officials denied that the timing of the announcement was politically motivated.

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao is expected to meet Obama on the sidelines of a UN meeting in New York next week.

Wen will be in New York next week to attend both the annual UN General Assembly meeting and a special summit on the UN's Millennium Development Goals.



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TRADE WARS
US takes two China trade cases to WTO
Washington (AFP) Sept 15, 2010
Trade tensions between the United States and China ratcheted up another notch Wednesday, as Washington called on the WTO to probe unfair Chinese trade practices. The United States asked the World Trade Organization to investigate China's allegedly unfair treatment of US steel and electronic payment providers, the first step toward sanctions. "We are concerned that China is breaking its t ... read more







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