The Currency Reform for Fair Trade Act 2010 was a bill by the

Congress of the United States The United States Congress is the legislature of the federal government of the United States. It is bicameral, composed of a lower body, the House of Representatives, and an upper body, the Senate. It meets in the U.S. Capitol in Wash ...

that sought punitive trade tariffs on countries that have perceived unfair competitive advantaged by such measures as currency manipulation. The Act followed controversy as to China artificially keeping the yuan lower than its actual value (some say by at least 20%). Further to China there were other countries, most notably Japan, that took measures to weaken their currency.

Background

Bill

The bill was introduced by Rep. Timothy Ryan -OHon 13 May 2010. It was passed on to the

House Ways and Means committee The Committee on Ways and Means is the chief tax-writing committee of the United States House of Representatives. The committee has jurisdiction over all taxation, tariffs, and other revenue-raising measures, as well as a number of other progra ...

and the

Senate Finance committee The United States Senate Committee on Finance (or, less formally, Senate Finance Committee) is a standing committee of the United States Senate. The Committee concerns itself with matters relating to taxation and other revenue measures general ...

on 28 September 2010. The following day it was passed in the

House of Representatives House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entitles. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often c ...

by a vote of 348 in favour, 79 opposed and 6 abstentions. The House bill amended the

Tariff Act of 1930 A tariff is a tax imposed by the government of a country or by a supranational union on imports or exports of goods. Besides being a source of revenue for the government, import duties can also be a form of regulation of foreign trade and polic ...

in that this version require the president's administration to: (1) determine, based on certain requirements, if the currency

exchange rate In finance, an exchange rate is the rate at which one currency will be exchanged for another currency. Currencies are most commonly national currencies, but may be sub-national as in the case of Hong Kong or supra-national as in the case of t ...

of a country that exports goods or services to the US is "fundamentally and actionably undervalued or overvalued" against the

American dollar The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...

for an 18-month period; and (2) should there be deemed a violation, the administration should to take action in the form of a "countervailing duty or antidumping duty" so as to offset such a misalignment. It also said the currency of a non-

market economy A market economy is an economic system in which the decisions regarding investment, production and distribution to the consumers are guided by the price signals created by the forces of supply and demand, where all suppliers and consumers ...

would be subject to the provisions of the Act.

Amendments

An amendment was offered in the House committee, and was adopted.GovTrack: H.Amdt. 781 to H.R. 2378 - 111th Congress
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References

External links

Text of H.R. 2378: Currency Reform for Fair Trade Act

Related legislation
!--Needs to be merged into he article--> {{DEFAULTSORT:Currency Reform For Fair Trade Act 2010 Proposed legislation of the 111th United States Congress United States federal trade legislation