U.S. Sen. Evan Bayh, D-Ind., is holding the feet of Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson to the fire, in urging him to release two reports on currency manipulation.

Both reports, according to a statement released on Wednesday, are required to be released under law. The first is a report mandated by the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2008 and identifies members of the International Monetary Fund which “are manipulating their currencies to tilt the playing field in their favor.” The second is a semi-annual report mandated by the Exchange Rates and International Economic Policy Coordination Act of 1988.

In a letter to Paul, Bayh and two other senators note that the first report is “already 13 days past the due date of April 24, 2008.”

The second report the three senators urge Paulson to release by the unspecified statutory deadline, unlike the last one, which was released two months after its due date last year.

“Unfortunately, the failure to produce these reports on time sends a signal to American manufacturers and workers that our government fails to recognize the severity of their problems,” the three senators wrote in their letter. “Middle-class America is suffering because other countries are manipulating exchange rates to increase net exports. Trade economists have concluded that China, for example, gives its firms up to a 40-percent subsidy by manipulating exchange rates to undervalue the renminbi. That means the same good, made with the same materials, will cost up to 40 percent less when made in China and sold in the United States, solely because of currency manipulation.”

Posted 5/8/2008