January 20, 2002	Sunday	Ziqa’ad 5, 1422

WASHINGTON, Jan 19: US industry and labor groups pleaded on Friday with George W. Bush’s administration for a weaker dollar, a spokesman for manufacturers said.

We are bleeding, US industry and labor executives told Treasury Undersecretary John Taylor in a meeting, said National Association of Manufacturing vice president Frank Vargo.

Representatives of manufacturers, aerospace, automobile, paper, and textile industries made the call, along with the American Federation of Labour and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO), he said.

The group called specifically for the Bush administration to make a public statement saying the dollar, yen, euro and Canadian dollar are misaligned, Vargo said.

It also asked for a statement that the Group of Seven industrial powers — Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States — was ready to act in concert to weaken the dollar.

We believe intervention works, Vargo said, adding that currency market intervention should be one of the tools the G7 uses in reversing the dollar’s strength.

The group urged Taylor and Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill to communicate US opposition to yen depreciation during their five-day trip to Tokyo, which starts Saturday.

The Bush administration should end the silence on the yen, state that the United States does not support any policy of deliberately driving down the yen, he said.

Vargo said the group told Taylor that financial markets interpreted the Treasury Department’s silence on the yen’s weakening in the past few months as an assent.

Taylor made no commitments at the meeting, Vargo said.

Treasury spokesman Tony Fratto said the Bush administration’s strong dollar policy remained unchanged after the meeting.

There is no change in US policy on the dollar, Fratto told reporters.—AFP