Today, U.S. Representative Bill Pascrell, Jr. (NJ-09), Ranking Member of the Ways and Means Trade Subcommittee, issued the following remark based on statements made by the President and Treasury Secretary in an Economist interview.

Specifically this passage:

"President Trump: Now, with that in mind, he’s representing China and he wants what’s best for China. But so far, you know, he’s been, he’s been very good. But, so they talk about why haven’t you called him a currency manipulator? Now think of this. I say, “Jinping. Please help us, let’s make a deal. Help us with North Korea, and by the way we’re announcing tomorrow that you’re a currency manipulator, OK?” They never say that, you know the fake media, they never put them together, they always say, he didn’t call him a currency [manipulator], number one. Number two, they’re actually not a currency [manipulator]. You know, since I’ve been talking about currency manipulation with respect to them and other countries, they stopped.

Mr Mnuchin: Right, as soon as the president got elected they went the other way"

"The President, and more shockingly the Treasury Secretary, falsely suggests that the Government of China changed its currency policy because it feared this President would take a more muscular approach to stopping currency manipulation. In fact, the opposite is closer to the truth. What the President has actually done is signal that it’s okay for China to engage in currency manipulation right now because we need their help with North Korea," Rep. Pascrell said. "Instead, the President must strongly assert that we expect China to act like a responsible stakeholder in the global community both by helping to prevent North Korea from recklessly creating an international crisis and by not manipulating its currency to gain an unfair competitive advantage over other countries."

In April, Rep. Pascrell and Reps. Sander Levin (D-MI) and Tim Ryan (D-OH) introduced the Currency Reform For Fair Trade Act. This bill takes aim at currency manipulators by enabling the Department of Commerce to impose countervailing duties to offset the impact of currency manipulation on a U.S. industry.