TRADE

CONGRESSIONAL PANEL CALLS FOR TARIFFS AGAINST CHINA

American lawmakers should consider tariffs against Chinese imports because China’s undervalued currency is contributing to a loss of manufacturing, which is a national security concern, a congressionally appointed panel said yesterday.

Calling the recent revaluation of the yuan “an extremely limited step,” the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission said in a report that Congress should encourage the Treasury Department to label China a “currency manipulator” if China refuses to take further steps to adjust its currency policy.

The independent commission was set up five years ago to monitor the national security implications of the nation’s trade and economic relationship with China. This year’s report places more emphasis on what the panel sees as China’s resistance to address a “highly skewed bilateral economic relationship” marked by a record $162 billion American trade deficit last year.

– Bloomberg News

REGULATION

BUSH NAMES TWO TO THE FCC President Bush nominated a Republican Tennessee utility regulator, Deborah Taylor Tate, to the Federal Communications Commission and renominated a Democrat, Michael Copps, leaving one Republican seat free for an appointment. The nominations, which require Senate confirmation, will leave control of the regulator split between two Republican and two Democratic commissioners, limiting the power of its chairman, Kevin Martin. Mr. Bush didn’t nominate anyone to fill the commission’s fifth seat, reserved for a Republican.

– Bloomberg News

IN BRIEF

After paying more than $12 billion in fines and settlements over four years, Wall Street firms including Goldman Sachs and Lehman Brothers are headed for their biggest profits since 2000 … Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase, the second- and third-biggest American banks, said yesterday that a larger-than-expected surge in personal bankruptcy filings will inflate their bad loans this quarter … Google sought to patent a system that helps individuals and small businesses sell items online by automatically creating advertisements that appear next to Web search results … The U.S. Financial Accounting Standards Board will consider a staff recommendation that companies be required to account for pension plan funding in calculating net worth … Roche, under pressure from countries from Canada to India, will charge some governments as little as $8.21 a treatment for its Tamiflu flu medication when bought for use during a possible pandemic.

– Bloomberg News