White House: Adding Currency Measure To Trade Deals Might Harm Fed

Adding measures targeting currency manipulation to trade legislation could boomerang and tie the hands of the Federal Reserve, said White House spokesman Josh Earnest on Monday. "There is a better way for us to resolve concerns related to currency," such as the G-7, G-20 and International Monetary Fund meetings, Earnest said at the daily briefing. Many Democrats have said they would not support so-called fast track legislation for upcoming trade deals unless it called on the White House to seek to add currency manipulation provisions to the agreements. "The concern that we have about some of the approaches that are currently being discussed on Capitol Hill, is that they could be used to effectively undermine the independence of the Federal Reserve," Earnest said. Many countries had complained the Fed's bond-buying programs were essentially means to lower the dollar's value in foreign exchange markets.