Iowa Fair Trade Campaign Position: Commit to strengthen and effectively enforce U.S. trade laws to protect U.S. jobs and our manufacturing base. Commit to implementing emergency policies to bring our trade deficit into balance, including by addressing currency manipulation, eliminating tax breaks for offshoring production, and exploring other options, such as an import surcharge.

Sen. Joe Biden's Position Sen. Hillary Clinton's Position Sen. Chris Dodd's Position
"I would stop allowing the Chinese to manipulate the value of its currency and exchange rates. I would convene a summit, as we did in the 1980's, with Europe, China and Japan to address currency valuation." "A Biden White House would approach trade policy by immediately enforcing existing trade agreements--something that this Administration is not doing" (Statement to IA Fair Trade Campaign) "As President, I will make vigorous enforcement of our agreements a priority. I will appoint a trade enforcement officer, and double the enforcement staff at the office of the United States Trade Representative…As President, I will…ensure foreign countries do not manipulate currencies to disadvantage American goods." (Statement to IA Fair Trade Campaign) "For too long, countries like China have been illegally manipulating the value of their currency against World Trade Organization (WTO) and International Monetary Fund (IMF) rules to gain unfair trade advantages…Chris Dodd will put an end to this by immediately designating China and others who illegally engage in this practice as currency manipulators and holding them accountable before the WTO, the IMF, and the International Trade Commission." (Statement to IA Fair Trade Campaign)
Former Sen. John Edwards' Position Sen. Barack Obama's Position Gov. Bill Richardson's Position
"I will eliminate the tax incentives that encourage American companies to invest overseas rather than here at home. We must fix our own tax code so that corporations aren't rewarded for closing plants and shipping jobs to countries like China. In an Edwards administration, the top prosecutors at the Department of Justice will be responsible for enforcing out trade agreements. And our trade deals must include prohibitions against illegal subsidies and currency manipulation and other trade cheating of the sort that is in fact encouraged under most of our current arrangements." (Statement to IA Fair Trade Campaign) "I will protect our producers from dumping, predatory pricing and currency manipulation. And I will promote policies to reinvigorate our manufacturing sector by ending tax breaks for companies that ship jobs overseas. I will fight the manipulation of currency others are engaged in, including China, because it will make products artificially cheaper than ours. And we will demand equal access to markets abroad for our producers so that centralized discrimination against our auto producers in Korea through taxes and regulation is not repeated in other markets with American goods and services." (Statement to IA Fair Trade Campaign) Not included in statement to IA Fair Trade Campaign