No decision to delay Senate vote on China bill: aide

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – There has been no decision yet to
delay a scheduled Senate vote this month on a bill threatening
China with steep U.S. tariffs on its exports if Beijing does
not revalue its currency, a spokesman for one of the two Senate
sponsors of the bill said on Wednesday.

“Senator (Lindsey) Graham has not agreed to delay a vote on
the China currency legislation,” Kevin Bishop, a spokesman for
the South Carolina Republican, said in a statement. “No
decision has been made and any insinuation to the contrary is
nothing more than uninformed speculation.”

Bishop was responding to a news report quoting a
unidentified “senior Republican staffer” as saying Graham and
Sen. Charles Schumer, a New York Democrat, were “strongly
inclined” to wait until late April or early May for a vote on
their bill.

That would be after Chinese President Hu Jintao visits
Washington for talks with U.S. President George W. Bush and
after the U.S. Treasury Department is expected to release its
semi-annual currency report, in which many lawmakers hope China
will be formally labeled a currency manipulator.

Graham and Schumer have been promised a vote by March 31 on
their bill threatening China with tariffs. However, they agreed
several times last year to delay action on their bill to give
China time to move on its own.

The two senators have been expected to travel to China this
month to press on the currency issue. However, neither office
has released details on the trip. Graham “will continue to
discuss with Sen. Schumer the best way to get China to more
accurately value its currency,” Bishop said.