美國擬立法懲罰"匯率操縱國"

Foreign products from places such as China and Japan would be subject to punitive US import taxes if their governments were found guilty of currency manipulation by Washington under draft legislation unveiled ­yesterday.

根據昨日公佈的立法草案，如果華盛頓方面認定中國和日本等國的政府操縱匯率，來自這些地方的產品將面臨美國的懲罰性進口稅。

The measures contained in bipartisan bills presented in both houses of Congress come amid an escalation in rhetoric in Washington surrounding recent foreign exchange swings fed by concerns over the impact on American competitiveness and the US recovery of a rising dollar.

這些措施包含在兩黨聯合向國會兩院提交的法案中。目前華盛頓方面圍繞匯率波動的言論提高了分貝，其背後的推動力是有人擔憂美元走高對美國競爭力和美國經濟復甦的影響。

“Few actions by foreign governments do more to disrupt free and fair trade and to harm US job growth than currency manipulation,” said Sander Levin, the veteran Democrat from Michigan leading the push in the lower House of Representatives.

“外國政府採取的行動中，沒有什麼比操縱匯率更容易破壞自由和公平的貿易，損害美國的就業增長，”衆議員桑德•萊文(Sander Levin)表示，這位密歇根州民主黨老將在衆議院牽頭這項努力。

“Currency manipulation has had a major impact on millions of American middle-class jobs. We are sending an unequivocal message today that action is needed to rein in this abuse.”

“匯率操縱已經對數以百萬計的美國中產階級職位產生了重大影響。今天，我們發出一個明確的信息，即需要採取行動遏止這種濫用行爲。”

A majority of both houses of Congress have called for the US to introduce binding currency provisions into trade agreements being negotiated by Washington, including the Trans-Pacific Partnership with Japan and 10 other countries now nearing completion.

國會兩院的多數議員都已呼籲美國將具有約束力的匯率條款引入華盛頓正在談判的貿易協定，包括與日本和另外10個國家已接近談妥的《跨太平洋夥伴關係協定》（Trans-Pacific Partnership，簡稱TPP）。

But that push, backed heavily by the US auto industry, has been resisted by the White House and the US Treasury in particular, which insists that forums such as the G20 and institutions such as the International Monetary Fund are better suited to deal with currency matters than trade agreements.

但是，得到美國汽車業大力支持的上述呼聲，迄今受到奧巴馬政府、尤其是美國財政部的抵制，該部堅稱，20國集團(G20)這樣的論壇，以及國際貨幣基金組織(IMF)這樣的機構，比貿易協定更適合處理匯率問題。

If passed by Congress and signed by President Barack Obama, the new legislation would allow US industries to lobby Washington to impose countervailing duties on goods from countries that met a series of tests for currency manipulation. Similar legislation passed the House of Representatives in 2010 and the Senate in 2011 though it has never become law.

如果國會通過並經巴拉克•奧巴馬(Barack Obama)總統簽署成爲法律，新的立法將允許美國各行各業遊說華盛頓，對達到一系列匯率操縱門檻的國家的輸美產品開徵反補貼稅。類似的立法曾在2010年得到衆議院通過，2011年得到參議院通過，儘管從未成爲法律。

However, Mr Levin, who has spent decades fighting on behalf of the US auto industry against alleged currency manipulation by countries such as Japan, said the proposed measures would apply only to direct intervention in currency markets by governments.

不過，幾十年來一直代表美國汽車業對抗日本等涉嫌操縱匯率的國家的萊文表示，擬議中的措施將僅針對政府直接干預匯市的行爲。

They would explicitly not apply to any currency swings linked to central banks’ decisions on monetary policy, raising the question of just how relevant the proposed legislation would be.

它們將明確不適用於與央行貨幣政策決定關聯的任何匯率波動，這就帶出一個問題：擬議中的立法究竟與現實有多大的相關性？

The recent surge in the dollar and slumps in currencies such as the euro and the yen have been attributed largely to the introduction of unorthodox monetary measures by central banks. The US faced its own accusations of feeding a “currency war” in the wake of the 2008 global financial crisis as a result of the quantitative easing programme.

近期美元大幅上漲，而歐元和日元走低，基本上都被歸因於相關央行推出非正統的貨幣政策。2008年全球金融危機過後，美國自己曾面臨引發“匯率戰爭”的指責，原因就是美國實行的量化寬鬆政策。

The recent moves by some central banks, aimed largely at stimulating domestic growth, have been explicitly cheered by some governments eager to see their currencies weaken in order to benefit exporters. Italy’s prime minister, Matteo Renzi, said last month that he dreamt of “parity” between the US dollar and the euro and the benefits it would provide to Italian exporters.

一些央行近期的舉措主要是爲了刺激國內經濟增長，但這些舉措也受到一些急於看到本幣走低（從而造福出口商）的政府的明確歡呼。意大利總理馬泰奧•倫齊(Matteo Renzi)上月表示，他夢想着美元兌歐元匯率達到1:1、爲意大利出口企業帶來實際好處的那一天。

Fred Bergsten, the former head of the Peterson Institute think-tank, said the proposed US legislation would probably not apply to any countries today.

智庫彼得森國際經濟研究所(Peterson Institute for International Economics)前負責人弗雷德•伯格斯滕(Fred Bergsten)表示，從當今的情況看，擬議中的美國立法很可能對一個國家也不適用。