International Business

An important issue in international business news through the early months of 2010 has been the concern of trading partners with China over the issue of the country’s decision to hold down the value of its national currency. International business is strongly interested and will be heavily impacted by the decision that China makes in this regard. It has been counted as a positive sign in international business news, then, when spokespeople for China released statements seeming to indicate a greater measure of willingness to behave flexibly on the issue than has been the case in the past. Though this issue is likely to have a strong effect and receive wide attention throughout the world of international business, it has been a particular area of concern for the United States government and businesses.

In a speech that was widely reported in international business news, the United States ambassador Jon Huntsman, speaking to students at Tsinghua University in Beijing, tried to illuminate for them why many Americans are pushing for political pressure to be placed on this Chinese international business policy, which connects the value of the item of currency known as a renminbi to the estimation given to the dollar. This strategy has been pursued as a means for keeping the price of Chinese exports low. According to some analysts, the practice has also placed strain on the attempts made by other countries, such as the United States, to recover from the negative effects of the global economic recession. With tensions between the United States and China in 2010 fed by the political issues raised by American relations with Tibet and Taiwan, this international business issue is feared by many to have the potential to further worsen relations between the two countries. A pivot point in this debate is expected to come from a report, promised for publication in April 2010, issued by the Treasury Department on China’s practices involved in the modification of currency prices. Some commentators on international business news have been placing pressure on the Treasury Department to use the occasion of this report to tar China with the charge of being a currency manipulator, a prospect which also raises fears on the part of others in the international business world that fierce economic rivalry would be touched off between China and the United States. Financial professionals and others with an active interest in following the progress of international business news thus have strong incentives to track the course taken by this trade issue, and pay attention to the effect it exerts on the world of international business as a whole.

The speech given by Ambassador Huntsman sought to mollify the concerns of the students in his audience as well as the tenor of international business news in general by insisting that the governments of China and the United States still possessed the ability to pull back from this brink of trade rivalry and put commercial relations between the countries back on a mutually cooperative and beneficial track.