美國(guó)擬立法懲罰"匯率操縱國(guó)"

Foreign products from places such as China andJapan would be subject to punitive US import taxesif their governments were found guilty of currencymanipulation by Washington under draftlegislation unveiled ­yesterday.

根據(jù)昨日公布的立法草案，如果華盛頓方面認(rèn)定中國(guó)和日本等國(guó)的政府操縱匯率，來自這些地方的產(chǎn)品將面臨美國(guó)的懲罰性進(jìn)口稅。

The measures contained in bipartisan bills presentedin both houses of Congress come amid anescalation in rhetoric in Washington surroundingrecent foreign exchange swings fed by concerns over the impact on Americancompetitiveness and the US recovery of a rising dollar.

這些措施包含在兩黨聯(lián)合向國(guó)會(huì)兩院提交的法案中。目前華盛頓方面圍繞匯率波動(dòng)的言論提高了分貝，其背后的推動(dòng)力是有人擔(dān)憂美元走高對(duì)美國(guó)競(jìng)爭(zhēng)力和美國(guó)經(jīng)濟(jì)復(fù)蘇的影響。

 

 

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

“外國(guó)政府采取的行動(dòng)中，沒有什么比操縱匯率更容易破壞自由和公平的貿(mào)易，損害美國(guó)的就業(yè)增長(zhǎng)，”眾議員桑德•萊文(Sander Levin)表示，這位密歇根州民主黨老將在眾議院牽頭這項(xiàng)努力。

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

“匯率操縱已經(jīng)對(duì)數(shù)以百萬(wàn)計(jì)的美國(guó)中產(chǎn)階級(jí)職位產(chǎn)生了重大影響。今天，我們發(fā)出一個(gè)明確的信息，即需要采取行動(dòng)遏止這種濫用行為。”

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

國(guó)會(huì)兩院的多數(shù)議員都已呼吁美國(guó)將具有約束力的匯率條款引入華盛頓正在談判的貿(mào)易協(xié)定，包括與日本和另外10個(gè)國(guó)家已接近談妥的《跨太平洋伙伴關(guān)系協(xié)定》(Trans-Pacific Partnership，簡(jiǎn)稱TPP)。

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

但是，得到美國(guó)汽車業(yè)大力支持的上述呼聲，迄今受到奧巴馬政府、尤其是美國(guó)財(cái)政部的抵制，該部堅(jiān)稱，20國(guó)集團(tuán)(G20)這樣的論壇，以及國(guó)際貨幣基金組織(IMF)這樣的機(jī)構(gòu)，比貿(mào)易協(xié)定更適合處理匯率問題。

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

如果國(guó)會(huì)通過并經(jīng)巴拉克•奧巴馬(Barack Obama)總統(tǒng)簽署成為法律，新的立法將允許美國(guó)各行各業(yè)游說華盛頓，對(duì)達(dá)到一系列匯率操縱門檻的國(guó)家的輸美產(chǎn)品開征反補(bǔ)貼稅。類似的立法曾在2010年得到眾議院通過，2011年得到參議院通過，盡管從未成為法律。

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

不過，幾十年來一直代表美國(guó)汽車業(yè)對(duì)抗日本等涉嫌操縱匯率的國(guó)家的萊文表示，擬議中的措施將僅針對(duì)政府直接干預(yù)匯市的行為。

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

它們將明確不適用于與央行貨幣政策決定關(guān)聯(lián)的任何匯率波動(dòng)，這就帶出一個(gè)問題：擬議中的立法究竟與現(xiàn)實(shí)有多大的相關(guān)性?

The recent surge in the dollar and slumps in currencies such as the euro and the yen have beenattributed 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 globalfinancial 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，基本上都被歸因于相關(guān)央行推出非正統(tǒng)的貨幣政策。2008年全球金融危機(jī)過后，美國(guó)自己曾面臨引發(fā)“匯率戰(zhàn)爭(zhēng)”的指責(zé)，原因就是美國(guó)實(shí)行的量化寬松政策。

The recent moves by some central banks, aimed largely at stimulating domestic growth, havebeen explicitly cheered by some governments eager to see their currencies weaken in order tobenefit 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 Italianexporters.

一些央行近期的舉措主要是為了刺激國(guó)內(nèi)經(jīng)濟(jì)增長(zhǎng)，但這些舉措也受到一些急于看到本幣走低(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(mèng)想著美元兌歐元匯率達(dá)到1:1、為意大利出口企業(yè)帶來實(shí)際好處的那一天。

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

智庫(kù)彼得森國(guó)際經(jīng)濟(jì)研究所(Peterson Institute for International Economics)前負(fù)責(zé)人弗雷德•伯格斯滕(Fred Bergsten)表示，從當(dāng)今的情況看，擬議中的美國(guó)立法很可能對(duì)一個(gè)國(guó)家也不適用。