Trade with China is again on the agenda in the U.S. election, with both parties advocating a tougher approach to China

In the final stages of the 2008 U.S. presidential election, trade with China once again became a major issue, with both sides of the campaign urging tough policies toward China, the Asian economic giant.
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Democratic candidate Obama is the latest candidate to make a fuss about China. In a letter released Wednesday by the National Association of Textile Groups, Obama vowed to address the textile industry’s grievances that China manipulates its currency to gain a competitive advantage in global markets.
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Obama said that China’s huge trade surplus with the United States is a direct result of “manipulation of the RMB exchange rate” and emphasized that “China must change its policies, including its exchange rate policy.” Obama said that China’s economy must rely less on exports and rely more on domestic demand for growth. Obama said that he will do his best and use all diplomatic means to urge China to make the above changes.
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For years, the Bush administration has refused to officially declare that China is manipulating its currency. But the Bush administration also had some success in prompting the Chinese government to let the yuan appreciate.
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In the camp of Republican candidate McCain, senior economic adviser Doug Hozikin said that McCain has rich experience enough to realize that relations with China should not simply be attributed to the RMB exchange rate. McCain prefers Yu has confronted China on a range of issues, including international economic agreements.
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​​​​ Obama made the above promise to do everything possible to attract voters in North Carolina. The textile industry is still an important part of the state’s economy, and local voters are very worried about competition from China.
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Obama also promised to closely monitor China’s textile exports to the United States after the quota for Chinese textile exports to the United States expires at the end of 2008. Obama also promised to use trade remedy laws to protect industries threatened by unfair competition overseas, such as textile manufacturers. Obama said he was particularly aware of the trade difficulties faced by workers in the textile industry.
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Obama’s remarks came as Republican Senator Elizabeth Dole also sought to highlight her trade credentials ahead of the election.
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In mid-September, Dole, who encountered an unexpectedly difficult situation in seeking re-election, wrote to the White House, urging the government to take action to ensure that American textile manufacturers and workers will not be harmed once China’s quota on textile exports to the United States expires, accusing China of increasing its Subsidies for textile manufacturers.
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Bush’s Trade Representative Susan Schwab said that the U.S. government will step up research on this issue. Schwab said in a letter to Dole last week that the United States has notified China about concerns that Chinese textile manufacturers receive unfair subsidies. Schwab said he had written to China’s Commerce Minister to express concern about China’s possible subsidy violations of the WTO agreement and warned that the United States would consider filing a complaint with the WTO if China did not take immediate action to eliminate such subsidies.