Washington, DC — The Automotive Trade Policy Council, whose members include Chrysler, Ford and General Motors, praised Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) and Rep. Joe Knollenberg (R-MI) for inserting language into the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2008 directing the Secretary of the Treasury to report to Congress, within the next four months, U.S. trading partners that are unfairly manipulating their currency or whose currency is fundamentally misaligned.

“The fundamental and longstanding misalignment of Japan’s yen must be corrected, which is why it is important to require the Treasury Department to report to Congress when exchange rate violations occur,” said ATPC Vice President Charles Uthus. “We thank Senator Stabenow and Congressman Knollenberg for their unwavering support of American manufacturing.”

Earlier this year, Rep. Knollenberg and Sen. Stabenow introduced the Japan Currency Manipulation Act in their respective chambers. Both bills direct the U.S. Treasury Department and the Council of Economic Advisors to work with Japan to facilitate the proper alignment of the yen to the dollar. The legislation also directs the Treasury Department to work with our European trading partners and the International Monetary Fund to address the misaligned yen and the resulting trade imbalances.

Since 2001, the Japanese government has intervened repeatedly in currency markets to artificially devalue the yen by upwards of 30 percent. Japanese automakers now export nearly 50 percent of the vehicles they produce in factories in Japan, with 2.2 million vehicles exported to the U.S. this year, the highest in twenty years.

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The Automotive Trade Policy Council, Inc. (ATPC) is a Washington, D.C. — based non profit trade association that represents the common international economic, trade and investment interests of its member companies: Chrysler LLC, Ford Motor Company and General Motors Corporation.