Earlier this month, the US Senate voted by 67 to 33 to consider a bill that would impose a 27.5 per cent tariff on all Chinese imports if the latter did not revalue within six months. Rob Portman, President George W. Bush's nominee for US trade representative, has promised a "more aggressive approach" towards China's trade practices. Benign neglect of the US current account deficits is turning into malign attention. But what is being proposed is misguided, if not dangerous. In a multilateral trading system, bilateral deficits and surpluses are of no significance. This is a global challenge, requiring global solutions.

I will advance four broad propositions that bring together my previous analyses, including last week's column ("US deficits aren't just China's problem", April 19).