From Reuters, via The Washington Post:
U.S. senators and senior Bush administration officials head to China this week, kicking off a decisive period in bilateral economic relations leading up to President Hu Jintao’s visit to Washington next month.”These are momentous times for trade relations between America and China,” Sen. Charles Schumer, a New York Democrat, said at joint news conference with Sen. Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican, ahead of their trip to pressure Beijing to revalue its yuan currency at a higher exchange rate to the dollar.
The latest deadline of March 31 follows months of frustration that changes made by China to its exchange rate mechanism last July have only led to an estimated 3 percent rise in the yuan’s value, rather than the 15 percent to 40 percent increase that many had sought.
