WebProNews

Lawmakers have become increasingly unhappy with the Bush administration's apparent lack of effort on the currency issue.

American businesses have been heavily critical of China's fixed currency strategy, which maintains a value of 8.3 yuan to the dollar. Those criticisms have found allies in the Senate.

And Senate lawmakers were not happy with Treasury Secretary John Snow, over a recent Treasury report claiming that China was not manipulating its currency to maintain an unfair trade advantage.

Businesses and lawmakers have been pressuring the White House on the issue, and are threatening punitive tariffs on Chinese goods if China does not revalue the yuan and let the currency's value float on the world markets.

While the White House is under pressure, lawmakers are themselves under pressure from businesses and constituents. As manufacturing jobs vanish from America, calls for more protectionist action against China have grown.

In response, Mr. Snow told a Senate committee he expects Beijing to allow the yuan to become a more flexible currency, and that the country will give in to US demands within months on the issue.

Though there was a lot of criticism of the Treasury report on currency practices, one Senator did publicly observe that Treasury may have been trying to be diplomatic by not calling China "manipulative" in the report.

David Utter is a staff writer for WebProNews covering technology and business. Email him here.