Lew Warns Countries Against `Race to Devalue' to Boost Trade

The U.S. will “oppose and push back very hard” against attempts to boost exports by weakening exchange rates, Treasury Secretary Jacob J. Lew said in one of his strongest statements yet on a potential currency war.

“It would be a very big mistake for the world to get into a situation where I think there is kind of a race to devalue,” Lew said in an interview with India’s NDTV television channel broadcast on Thursday. He said there’s a “very big difference” between countries that use tools like quantitative easing to boost domestic growth and those that weaken currencies to gain an “unfair trade advantage.”