Turkey, Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan vowed here Wednesday that the three countries would strengthen energy cooperation.

“We have developed projects of Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan crude oil pipeline, Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum natural gas pipeline and natural gas pipeline crossing over the Caspian Sea,” Turkish Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Taner Yildiz said during the Turkey- Azerbaijan-Turkmenistan energy ministers’ meeting.

“However, gas pipeline projects crossing over the Caspian Sea have not been realized due to certain reasons,” said Yildiz.

“But new projects, such as the Nabucco, have been developed in the region,” Yildiz said, adding “we believe that an agreement to support the (Nabucco) project would be signed in October.”

“We also want to purchase natural gas extracted in Turkmenistan at the Caspian Sea coastline,” added Yildiz.

Meanwhile, Azerbaijani Minister of Industry and Energy Natiq Aliyev said in the meeting that Azerbaijan hopes to make more investments in Turkey.

“We are working on establishing electrical energy connection between Azerbaijan and Turkey,” said Aliyev, adding “we attach high importance to carrying Turkmen natural gas to Europe via the Caspian Sea and Azerbaijan.”

“The Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum natural gas pipeline united the economies of Turkey and Azerbaijan and we are working to promote such kind of cooperation,” added Aliyev.

Also on Wednesday, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev signed an agreement on the establishment of Turkey-Azerbaijan High-Level Strategic Cooperation Council at Ciragan Palace in Istanbul.

Learn Chinese, Learn mandarin, Learning Materials, Mandarin audio lessons, Chinese writing lessons, Chinese vocabulary lists, About Chinese characters, News in Chinese, Go to China, Travel to China, Study in China, Teach in China, Dictionaries, Learn Chinese Painting, Your name in Chinese, Chinese calligraphy, Chinese songs, Chinese proverbs, Chinese poetry, Chinese tattoo, HSK, HSK exam, Chinese Exam Preparation, China Business, China Travel, Mandarin Phrasebook, Chinese editor, Pinyin editor, China Travel, Travel to Beijing

A chorus of critical voices gathered more strength in the United States on Wednesday over a bill on pressuring China to revalue its currency.

Commenting on the proposed Currency Reform for Fair Trade Act, Representative Lynn Jenkins warned at a congressional hearing that such measures would backfire on the U.S. economy and trigger more job losses.

The Chinese market for American agricultural products has continued to expand and U.S. agricultural exports to China have nearly doubled in the past six years, said Jenkins, whose home state Kansas is known as the “Wheat State” and relies heavily on farm exports.

China’s importation of Kansas goods “not only helps farmers, also keeps the grocery stores, pharmacies, insurance agencies and service stations in business,” she added.

Any action the United States might take to push China to revalue its currency must be considered “in the broader context of how it will affect the entire U.S. economy,” the congresswoman stressed.

China is currently the third largest export market for the United States, and economists believe that the two economies are closely inter-connected.

Yet with the U.S. unemployment rate hovering at 10 percent and congressional elections approaching, some U.S. industry leaders and congressmen have recently ratcheted up pressure on Beijing, urging China to steeply revalue its currency.

Lashing out at allegations that such a move would help U.S. save more jobs, Jenkins said many proposals beyond reducing federal deficits could actually “hamper agriculture markets, raise prices for U.S. manufacturers and further threaten U.S. jobs.”

Meanwhile, most trade lawyers believe that addressing the exchange rate with countervailing duties would violate the World Trade Organization rules, said John Frisbie, president of the U.S.-China Business Council.

“China’s exchange rate appreciated nearly 20 percent between 2005 and 2008, but the U.S. trade deficit with China grew during this time,” he told the hearing.

In July, China announced a plan to further proceed with its reform of the yuan exchange rate regime to enhance the exchange rate flexibility.

“We often hear the claim that trade with China has cost 2.4 million U.S. jobs. This claim is based on the faulty premise that everything we import from China would be made in the United States otherwise. That’s clearly an erroneous assumption and undermines the credibility of the number,” Frisbie added.

The critical remarks came one day after 36 major U.S. business organizations, including the American Chamber of Commerce in China and the Business Roundtable, called for the exclusion of the proposed bill.

“We strongly oppose legislation that would allow the use of either the anti-dumping or countervailing duty law to address currency concerns,” they said in a joint letter.

The letter was addressed to Sander Levin, chairman of the House of Representatives Ways and Means Committee, whose panel called the ongoing two-day hearing.

Calman Cohen, president of the U.S. Emergency Committee For American Trade (ECAT), said that on behalf of the members of the ECAT, he expressed “strong opposition” to the proposal.

The bill will lead to “fewer opportunities for U.S. exports and sales into China’s market”, said Cohen, adding that U.S. exports to China had quadrupled since 2000, making China the fastest-growing export market for the United States.

The ECAT’s members represent a broad array of sectors in the U.S. economy, including agriculture, finance, high technology, manufacturing, publishing and among others.

Learn Chinese, Learn mandarin, Learning Materials, Mandarin audio lessons, Chinese writing lessons, Chinese vocabulary lists, About Chinese characters, News in Chinese, Go to China, Travel to China, Study in China, Teach in China, Dictionaries, Learn Chinese Painting, Your name in Chinese, Chinese calligraphy, Chinese songs, Chinese proverbs, Chinese poetry, Chinese tattoo, HSK, HSK exam, Chinese Exam Preparation, China Business, China Travel, Mandarin Phrasebook, Chinese editor, Pinyin editor, China Travel, Travel to Beijing

The central parity rate of the yuan, China’s currency Renminbi (RMB), strengthened for a fifth consecutive trading day to a fresh high Thursday at 6.7 per U.S. dollar, according to the data released by the China Foreign Exchange Trading System.

The yuan’s central parity gained 69 basis points, or 0.1 percent, to 6.7181 per U.S. dollar Thursday, beating the previous record of 6.725 per U.S. dollar Wednesday, according to the data released by the China Foreign Exchange Trading System.

The yuan has seen increased volatility in the trading days since the People’s Bank of China (PBOC), the central bank, announced on June 19 this year to increase exchange rate flexibility.

The Chinese currency’s central parity against the U.S. dollar has risen by 1.6 percent from the rate of 6.8275 per U.S. dollar that was set a day before the PBOC’s pledge to increase flexibility.

On China’s foreign exchange spot market, the yuan can rise or fall 0.5 percent from the central parity rate during trading each day.

Based on Thursday’s central parity rates, the yuan’s value strengthened against all the currencies within its basket with lower rates except the British pound.

The PBOC released the yuan’s central parity rates against a basket of currencies — the U.S. dollar, the euro, the Japanese yen, the Hong Kong dollar, the British pound and the Malaysian Ringgit.

The yuan’s parity rate against the euro was set by the central bank at 8.7285 Thursday, lower from 8.7499 Wednesday. The yuan’s rate against 100 yen was 7.8496 Thursday, down from Wednesday’s 8.0941 despite the Japanese government’s move to intervene the yen’s rate against the U.S. dollar.

The Chinese currency weakened against the British pound Thursday with the rate against the British pound being fixed higher at 10.4997 from 10.4493 Wednesday.

The central parity of RMB against the U.S. dollar is based on a weighted average of enquired prices from all market makers before the opening of the market in each business day.

The central parity of RMB against the other five currencies is based on the central rate of RMB against the U.S. dollar of the same business day as well as the exchange rates of the five currencies against the U.S. dollar at 9 a.m. (0100 GMT) of the same business day in the international foreign exchange market.

Learn Chinese, Learn mandarin, Learning Materials, Mandarin audio lessons, Chinese writing lessons, Chinese vocabulary lists, About Chinese characters, News in Chinese, Go to China, Travel to China, Study in China, Teach in China, Dictionaries, Learn Chinese Painting, Your name in Chinese, Chinese calligraphy, Chinese songs, Chinese proverbs, Chinese poetry, Chinese tattoo, HSK, HSK exam, Chinese Exam Preparation, China Business, China Travel, Mandarin Phrasebook, Chinese editor, Pinyin editor, China Travel, Travel to Beijing