WASHINGTON, April 21 (Xinhuanet) -- A leading US newspaper criticized on Thursday members of the US Congress for threatening to apply punitive tariffs on Chinese goods unless China revalues its currency, calling the move "protectionism".

    The New York Times said in an editorial: "Members of Congress, egged on by American manufacturers, are threatening to slap punitive tariffs on Chinese goods unless China increases the exchange rate of its currency, the yuan, thus raising the price ofChinese imports here."

    "This is protectionism raising its ugly head, and an all-arounddreadful strategy," the paper said.

    The editorial said China's policy of linking the value of yuan to the value of dollar "was called sound policy when the dollar was strong." But when the dollar is weak, Congressional critics call the corresponding weak yuan "manipulation" because it makes already inexpensive Chinese goods even cheaper the world over, theeditorial said.

    However, "most of the trade gap with China is caused by Americans' insatiable appetite for Chinese imports, for which there are few domestic substitutes," it said.

    "And even if the yuan's exchange rate is too low -- a point on which economists differ -- it is a minor contributor to the (US) trade deficit," the editorial noted.

    The paper also said it is not in China's interest, nor in the interest of global economic stability, for China to move the yuan before its officials have coalesced around a strategy for doing so.

    It also warned American lawmakers to think twice about what theimpact could be at home if the yuan is revalued.

    Recently, some in the United States have blamed US ballooning trade deficit on China and attributed it to the so-called "manipulation" by China of its weak currency. Enditem