By Barrie Barber | The Saginaw News
March 11, 2010, 5:02AM
 
A Great Lakes Bay Region congressman has introduced legislation to repeal the North American Free Trade Agreement.
 
U.S. Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Menominee, whose sprawling district includes part of Bay County, has joined with two Democrats and a Republican to overturn the controversial pact that eliminated tariffs between the United States, Canada and Mexico.
 
Because of the deep national recession, Stupak sees an opportunity to strike now, although he admits the bill faces an uphill fight.
 
“Tell me somewhere NAFTA created a job,” he said. “You’re not going to find very many. Tell me where people have lost jobs because of NAFTA, and you’ll find thousands of them.”
 
Proponents say the agreement has created new markets for U.S. exports and meant cheaper goods for consumers, among other benefits.

China Daily, March 12, 2010

BEIJING - The United States should not make a political issue out of the yuan, a Chinese central banker said on Friday, as the two countries lurched towards a potentially serious clash about Beijing's currency regime.

People's Bank of China Vice Governor Su Ning was responding to a question about remarks on Thursday by US President Barack Obama, who called on China to move to a "more market-oriented exchange rate".

Wall Street Journal Business, March 11, 2010

WASHINGTON (Dow Jones)--President Barack Obama said Thursday the world would benefit if China moved to a more market-based currency system.

"As I've said before, China moving to a more market-oriented exchange rate would make an essential contribution to that global rebalancing effort," Obama said in remarks prepared for delivery at the U.S. Export-Import Bank's annual conference.

Obama, who rarely comments on currency matters, said a change in China's foreign-exchange rate would help the Group of 20's broad drive to rebalance the global economy, with countries with external surpluses, like China, boosting consumption and domestic demand and countries with external deficits, like the U.S., saving and exporting more.

The president's remarks also come a month ahead of a semiannual Treasury Department report that could designate China as a currency manipulator.

With Release of New Trade Deficit Figures, Sen. Brown Urges Obama Administration to Designate China as a Currency Manipulator

In Letter to Treasury Sec. Timothy Geithner, Brown Urges that China be Designated a Currency Manipulator in Semiannual Report

March 11, 2010

WASHINGTON, D.C. - With today's release of new trade deficit figures showing an $18.3 billion increase last month in our trade deficit with China, U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) today wrote to U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner urging him to designate China as a currency manipulator. Brown argued that the artificial devaluation of the Chinese currency has damaged the American manufacturing industry.