A Romney ad strains the facts when it suggests the Obama administration’s refusal to “stand up to China” and label it a currency manipulator has cost the U.S. 2 million jobs. The jobs figure is unrelated to currency manipulation. It is an International Trade Commission estimate of jobs that could be created if China enforced U.S. intellectual property rights.
Actually, intellectual property rights are a high priority of the Obama administration, and in 2010 it won what it called “significant intellectual property rights enforcement initiatives” from the Chinese.
Furthermore, the administration has muscled China on trade matters starting in 2009, when it sought import tariffs on 35 percent of imported tires from China. The Wall Street Journal called it “a big victory” when those tariffs were later upheld by the World Trade Organization.
Meanwhile, U.S. exports to China have increased 45 percent during Obama’s first three years in office.