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Legislative landscape increasing pressure on trade.

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With the Doha Round of trade talks under way and mid-term elections at year's end, U.S. steel industry executives and trade associations are clamoring for congressional action on Chinese currency manipulation.

Frustration over White House inaction on Chinese currency manipulation is bringing a new sense of urgency to industry appeals for retaliatory trade measures. Indeed, at least five bills are currently under consideration in Congress designed to make American goods more competitive vs. unfairly subsidized Chinese imports.

John Nolan, vice president and manager of sales and marketing for Steel Dynamics Inc., Fort Wayne, Ind., believes China's intentional undervaluation of its currency, the yuan, is the greatest threat to America's manufacturing base and economy for the long term.

Nolan has been a point man in the steel industry's effort to urge U.S. trade officials to take action against China. Among his many appearances, Nolan spoke on the issue before the House Ways and Means Committee last year. Last month, he addressed the topic at the Steel Business Briefings North American Steel Conference in Chicago.

"The Chinese are honest enough to acknowledge they do in fact intervene and manipulate," Nolan told steel executives. "Unfortunately, the only one around who denies that is the U.S. Treasury."

Rather than allowing the value of their currency to float on the free market as others do, the Chinese peg the yuan at a fixed value relative to the U.S. dollar. Nolan says China's peg undervalues its currency by as much as 40 percent, effectively subsidizing Chinese exports to the United States and other countries and affecting a hidden duty on U.S. products that would be imported into China.

Anti-China sentiment has been gaining steam nationally as the trade imbalance worsens. The United States posted a record trade deficit in 2005 of $726 billion, a sevenfold increase from the $100 billion deficit 10 years ago.

A number of industry trade organizations have made the Chinese currency issue their primary focus this year, including the American Iron and Steel Institute, the Steel Manufacturers Association, the Metals Service Center Institute and the China Currency Coalition, which represents various U.S. manufacturing industries in this common cause.

The growing grassroots appeal for action has caught the attention of lawmakers on Capitol Hill, who have sponsored several bills relating to Chinese currency and trade:

* H.R. 1498--This bipartisan bill authored by Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.) and Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio), would hold China accountable for its currency manipulation through stronger enforcement of existing trade...

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