US Treasury Secretary: The RMB Exchange Rate System Is Determined By China Itself

U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said on the 10th that the United States will continue to strengthen contacts with China and expand the economic interests of bilateral relations for the sake of American workers and enterprises.

Geithner said in his testimony on the Sino US economic and trade relations at the Senate Finance Committee that day: "China will soon become the second largest economy in the world and is expected to become the largest foreign market for American exports of goods and services." He said that China is increasing consumption and imports. China's overall trade surplus declined significantly. The US government will expand the opportunities brought to Americans by the growing China.

Geithner stressed that the economies of China and the United States are complementary. He said that in the first quarter of 2010, US exports to China increased by about 50% year on year, while US exports to the rest of the world grew by less than 20% in the same period. In the first quarter, from high-end manufacturing goods and chemicals to agricultural products such as soybeans, the export growth of many sectors of the United States to China exceeded double digits.

He said that the United States and the American people have benefited from strengthening economic and trade relations with China, and will continue to benefit. "We can't miss the opportunity brought by China's growth," he said

On the issue of the RMB, Geithner once again stressed that he believed that the appreciation of the RMB was in China's interests, but the RMB was a sovereign currency, and its exchange rate system was determined by the Chinese government. He pointed out that since July 2008, the weighted average value of the RMB against the currencies of major trading partners has appreciated by about 9%.