Would U.S. lawmakers feel differently if Sweden and France ran largetradesurpluses with the U.S. and were seen as discriminating against its companies?
Aiming his fire at China and Germany, he also argued that countries with largetradesurpluses needed to more to aid global rebalancing in a stronger growth environment.
What would be of foremost importance in this rebalancing process would be to bring the largetradesurpluses and foreign-exchange reserves down and shifting the driver of economic growth from investment and exports to domestic consumption, argues Thornton.
Ever since China began racking up largetradesurpluses with the United States, politicians and special interest groups in the United States have been charging that China keeps the renminbi undervalued in order to make products produced in the country more competitive in global markets.