Clinton and Obama vow to get tough with China on its undervalued currency; McCain presents a comprehensive view of his future economic policies
  • Share
  • Tweet
  • Email
  • Whatsapp
  • Linkedin
  • Print

    • The American presidential candidates battled it out on domestic economic issues. Senator Clinton and Senator Obama addressed the ‘Forum on Manufacturing’ in Pittsburgh where each of them reiterated their tough positions on China. Senator Obama on his part asserted that he would adopt tough positions with China on its undervalued currency, and vowed to use the threat to limit access to the U.S. market as a bargaining tool with the Chinese1.

    Senator Clinton also unveiled a new set of proposals to strengthen trade enforcement in her address to the Forum. She criticized the Bush administration for failing to protect American workers by not aggressively enforcing trade laws. Clinton promised to provide relief for U.S. industries that have been hurt by excessive Chinese imports, aggressively use the World Trade Organization (WTO) to challenge other countries for violating trade rules, create a new Intellectual Property Enforcement Network to crack down on piracy issues, review petitions of outside groups to government so that trade laws are enforced, and ensure that the United States can take retaliatory action against China and other non-market economies when they subsidize their domestic industries2.

    The Republican candidate Senator John McCain in his speech in Pittsburg on April 16 offered the most comprehensive view of his future economic polices. McCain proposed cutting corporate taxes to 25 percent from the current levels of 35 percent, and make permanent the Bush tax cuts that he once opposed. He also called for eliminating the alternative minimum tax and for doubling the value of exemptions for dependents to $7,000 from $3,500, and proposed giving taxpayers the option of filing a simpler, shorter tax form each year than which was available now3. He however went back from his earlier position of balancing the budget by the end of his first term

    Top