美国财长蒂姆•盖特纳(Tim Geithner)周四告诉国会，美国正考虑采用一系列工具，推动中国允许人民币更快升值。
在送交美国参议院和众议院相关委员会的拟定稿件中，盖特纳重申了自己的看法，即人民币升值太慢，并主张可结合采用各种直接及多边措施，鼓励中国政府让人民币更快升值。
“我们正在研究一个重要问题，即美国和多边方式可用的哪些工具组合，可能有助于鼓励中国官方加快行动，”他在声明中表示。自中国在6月19日宣布结束人民币盯住美元的汇率政策（盖特纳称这是重要的一步）以来，北京方面继续干预外汇市场，以防止人民币兑美元升值幅度超出极小的区间。
美国财政部将于10月中旬提交下一份一年两度的汇率报告，届时盖特纳将必须决定是否将中国正式列为汇率操纵国。尽管美国国会早就呼吁这么做，但美国财政部迄今走出这一步。“在我们准备下一份《汇率报告》之际，我们将把中方的行动纳入考虑范围，”他在证词中表示。“汇率必须展现出持续的、成趋势的升值。”
美国国会正在考虑一系列用于对付中国的工具，包括将汇率失调定性为非法出口补贴，这将使美方能够对中国输美商品开征紧急关税，以纠正偏低的汇率。美国众议院筹款委员会(ways and means committee)主席桑德尔•莱文(Sander Levin)周三表示，他对于向世贸组织(WTO)申诉中国这个想法感兴趣，尽管那需要数年时间才能解决。
迄今奥巴马政府尚未明确表示哪些工具可能是合适的，而且通常在对中国采取强硬姿态方面建议谨慎行事。
美国将寻求利用将要在韩国首尔召开的20国集团(G20)会议，对中国施压，要求其放松汇率政策，中国汇率政策也已招致其它多个G20国家的抱怨。但日本近日的行动可能使美国的努力复杂化；日本周三决定在停手6年后首次干预汇市，以压低日元汇率。莱文称此举“令人深感不安”。他表示，中国和日本在推行“掠夺性的”汇率政策。
译者/和风
http://www.ftchinese.com/story/001034677
The US is considering a range of tools to push China into allowing its currency to appreciate faster, Tim Geithner, Treasury secretary, told Congress on Thursday.
In text prepared for delivery to committees in the Senate and the House of Representatives, Mr Geithner repeated his view that the renminbi is rising too slowly and argue that a combination of direct and multilateral measures could be used to encourage the Chinese authorities to allow a swifter rise.
“We are examining the important question of what mix of tools, those available to the United States and multilateral approaches, might help encourage the Chinese authorities to move more quickly,” his statement said. Since China unpegged the renminbi from the dollar on June 19, a move Mr Geithner said was an important step, Beijing has continued to intervene in the foreign exchange markets to prevent anything more than minimal appreciation against the dollar.
A twice-yearly currency report prepared by the US Treasury is due in mid-October, and Mr Geithner will have to decide whether or not formally to name China a currency manipulator, a step it has so far not taken despite calls to do so from Congress. “We will take China’s actions into account as we prepare the next Foreign Exchange Report,” his testimony said. “The exchange rate must display a sustained, trend appreciation.”
Congress is considering a range of tools to use against China, including classifying exchange rate misalignment as an illegal export subsidy, which would allow the US to impose emergency tariffs on Chinese imports to correct for the undervaluation. Sander Levin, chairman of the House of Representatives ways and means committee, said on Wednesday he was attracted to the idea of taking a case against China to the World Trade Organisation, though that could take several years to resolve.
So far the administration has not taken a strong stand on which of these tools might be appropriate, and has generally counselled caution about adopting a combative stance towards Beijing.
The US will seek to use the forthcoming meeting of the G20 countries in Seoul, South Korea, to put pressure on China to loosen its exchange rate policy, which has also drawn complaints from several other G20 nations. But its campaign may be complicated by Japan’s decision on Wednesday to intervene in foreign exchange markets to hold down the yen for the first time in six years, a move that Mr Levin described as “deeply disturbing”. China and Japan were pursuing “predatory” exchange rate policies, Mr Levin said.
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