Boehner refuses to go along with Romney’s plan to confront Chinese currency manipulation

The top Republican in the U.S. Congress highlighted a policy rift Thursday with his party’s presidential hopeful when he reiterated his opposition to using legislation to press China to revalue its currency.

Staking out a position in contrast to the hawkish views of Mitt Romney, House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner, who has opposed repeated efforts in recent years to pass laws that would put tariffs on Chinese goods unless it allowed the yuan to appreciate, told reporters he still felt the same way.

“There’s a way to deal with this problem and a way not to deal with it. Congress passing a law outlining stringent requirements for dealing with the Chinese and the value of the currency, I think is inappropriate,” Boehner said.

Earlier this week, Lanhee Chen, the Romney campaign policy director, issued a blistering statement in which she said President Barack Obama, a Democrat, had “lost all credibility on China and trade” for among many things, failing to label China a currency manipulator despite his 2008 campaign pledge to do so.

“What message does it send the Chinese when President Obama refuses to even formally acknowledge that they are in fact manipulating their currency?” Chen wrote.

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