A variety of new laws aimed at forcing China to revalue the renminbi are before the US Congress. Up to now, such bills have come and gone, leaving little trace. But the latest plan from Democratic senators Max Baucus and Charles Schumer, and Republican senators Charles Grassley and Lindsey Graham, may be different.

For a start, it has been drafted to comply with the rules of the World Trade Organisation, to command broad international support and to be more difficult for the administration to defeat. It would compel the US Treasury to report on misaligned currencies (meaning the renminbi). If talks to address the issue then failed, the administration would be pushed towards sanctions including anti-dumping measures – in other words, higher tariffs against Chinese imports. The senators believe their bill may win enough votes to be veto-proof, and they could be right.