Strong Dollar Has Companies In Protest March
WASHINGTON -- Corporate America, hurt by the global slowdown, is trying to persuade the Bush administration to abandon the strong-dollar policy that has been a staple of U.S. economic strategy since the mid-1990s.</br></br>John T. Dillon, International Paper Co.'s chief executive and the new head of the Business Roundtable, pleaded his case at a private meeting with Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill yesterday. The dollar's strength against the yen and euro, he said, makes it too hard for U.S. companies to compete with imports and to penetrate foreign markets.</br></br>"There's no question that orders for our products have been off for about a year, and foreign companies are taking an increasing share of the U.S. market," Mr. Dillon said after the meeting with Mr. O'Neill. "It's not that their factories are any more efficient than our factories, but they do have a pretty sizable advantage because of the dollar's relationship with other currencies."</br></br>During the past two weeks, the dollar has surged to 15-year highs both against the British pound -- down to $1.3981 in late New York trading yesterday from $1.4007 a day earlier -- and against a basket of currencies of major U.S. trading partners. The euro, which sold for 85.45 U.S. cents late yesterday, is 27% weaker against the dollar than when the 12-nation currency made its debut on Jan. 1, 1999.</br></br>Mr. Dillon said industrial America is in a "deep recession," and that the administration should let the markets know that the U.S. is no longer inclined to prop up the dollar.