WASHINGTON, Oct 26 (Reuters) - U.S. steel companies on Monday urged U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk and Commerce Secretary Gary Locke to press China in talks this week to raise the value of its currency.
"The Chinese government's ongoing currency interventions to keep the RMB significantly undervalued versus the dollar threaten the fragile U.S. recovery and constitute an unfair practice in international trade," the American Iron and Steel Institute said in a letter to the Cabinet officials.
The group's members include U.S. Steel
Kirk and Locke are the U.S. co-chairs of the U.S.-China Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade, which is led on the Chinese side by Vice Premier Wang Qishan. The meeting is set for Wednesday and Thursday in Hangzhou.
Many U.S. manufacturers believe Beijing keeps its currency, the yuan, undervalued against the dollar to give Chinese exporters an unfair advantage in international trade.
The steel group also complained about Chinese government subsidies it said have allowed China to increase its share of the U.S. trade deficit even though overall trade is down this year because of the global financial crisis.
The yuan, also known as the renminbi
President Barack Obama complained loudly about China's currency practices during last year's campaign, but he has taken a softer approach since taking office.
In a semi-annual report this month, Obama's Treasury Department said China's yuan was "undervalued".
But it continued the practice of former President George W. Bush of not labeling China a currency manipulator -- a designation that could trigger negotiations leading to possible trade sanctions against an offender.
U.S. trade officials, speaking on condition they not be identified, declined to say last week whether Kirk and Locke would raise China's exchange rate policies this week.
But "obviously, currency is part and parcel of our overall economic relationship with China," a USTR official said.
Locke, during a trip to China in July, said the United States wanted Beijing to move to a "freer floating exchange rate." (Reporting by Doug Palmer; Editing by James Dalgleish)