Jack Lew, US President Barack Obama’s nominee for secretary of the Treasury, said he would press China to adopt a “market-determined” exchange rate.
Lew, in written answers to questions from members of the Senate Finance Committee obtained yesterday by Bloomberg News, said if he is confirmed, “addressing China’s exchange rate would be a top priority.”
He also said, in response to questions from Republican Senator Orrin Hatch, that he would push China to “level the playing field for our workers and firms, and support a sustained shift to domestic consumption-led growth in China.”
Lew cited “progress” in China, including a 15 percent gain in the yuan against the dollar in real terms since June 2010 and a decline in the current-account surplus from a peak of more than 10 percent of GDP to less than 3 percent.
Still, he said, “more progress is needed.”
Lew, Obama’s former chief of staff and former director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, was questioned by the committee at a confirmation hearing on Feb. 13. He will replace Timothy Geithner if confirmed.
The Eurovision Song Contest has seen a surge in punter interest at the bookmakers, becoming a major betting event, experts said ahead of last night’s giant glamfest in Basel. “Eurovision has quietly become one of the biggest betting events of the year,” said Tomi Huttunen, senior manager of the Online Computer Finland (OCS) betting and casino platform. Betting sites have long been used to gauge which way voters might be leaning ahead of the world’s biggest televised live music event. However, bookmakers highlight a huge increase in engagement in recent years — and this year in particular. “We’ve already passed 2023’s total activity and
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China yesterday announced anti-dumping duties as high as 74.9 percent on imports of polyoxymethylene (POM) copolymers, a type of engineering plastic, from Taiwan, the US, the EU and Japan. The Chinese Ministry of Commerce’s findings conclude a probe launched in May last year, shortly after the US sharply increased tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles, computer chips and other imports. POM copolymers can partially replace metals such as copper and zinc, and have various applications, including in auto parts, electronics and medical equipment, the Chinese ministry has said. In January, it said initial investigations had determined that dumping was taking place, and implemented preliminary