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No decision to delay Senate vote on China bill: aide

Posted on: Wednesday, 1 March 2006, 15:38 CST

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.

Source: REUTERS

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