The head of the International Monetary Fund said today that trying to correct global economic imbalances with trade restrictions was a mistake.
Lawmakers in the United States have threatened sanctions on Chinese textile exports unless the Asian giant abandons its peg to the dollar.
"Don't let's start thinking that a change in the exchange rate will radically correct problems relating to, for example, a lack of savings or a lack of alternative markets . . . it seems to us that to try to correct imbalances with trade restrictions is a grave error," Mr Rodrigo Rato said.
"Exchange rates do not have an immediate impact on trade balances or current account balances. A good example is the US trade balance, with the depreciation it has had," he said.
Mr Rato repeated the fund's view that it was in China's interest to have more exchange rate flexibility, and that this view was in line with what Chinese political and economic authorities were saying.
"It suits China, it needs to get to a situation where it can absorb external shocks and have its own monetary policy and that does not mean that it must give up certain policies to control its current account, by which I mean speculative (flows)," Mr Rato said.
Mr Rato also said it was right to for trade rules to be transparent, but warned against bigotry in trade relations.