Obama, Clinton back Senate trade bill on China currency

WASHINGTON, May 1 (Reuters) - Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama said on Thursday he supported a Senate bill to offset China's "currency manipulation," one day after his rival Hillary Clinton added her name to the list of legislation's co-sponsors.

"The Bush administration has failed to act on China's currency manipulation," Obama said in a statement endorsing legislation proposed by Sen. Debbie Stabenow, a Michigan Democrat, and Sen. Jim Bunning, a Kentucky Republican.

"This is unacceptable and allows China to continue inaccurately valuing its goods in a manner that mirrors a subsidy," Obama said.

The Stabenow-Bunning bill would define currency manipulation as a subsidy under U.S. trade laws, opening the door for the Commerce Department to impose countervailing duties on a broad array of Chinese goods.

Individual companies or industries would still have to petition for the relief before duties are imposed.

"This bill would allow a domestic producer harmed by this practice to seek redress through our fair trade laws," Obama, a Democratic senator from Illinois, said.

"That is why I co-sponsored the Currency Exchange Rate Oversight Reform Act earlier this year, and that is why I am co-sponsoring the Fair Currency Act today," he said.

Clinton, a Democratic senator from New York, signed on as co-sponsor of the legislation on Wednesday.

The two senators are in a tight race for their party's presidential nomination, with a pair of state contests in Indiana and North Carolina on Tuesday.