Financial Times

Coming so soon before the GDP data for the second quarter, which is due next Monday, the trade data for June have raised the possibility — noted by the FT's Simon Rabinovitch — that China might actually miss its growth targets for the first time in 15 years.

The 3.1 percent contraction in exports, compared to June 2012, was in stark contrast to expectations of 3.7 percent growth. Imports fell by 0.7 percent and expectations were for 6 percent growth.

Some of this could well be due to the crackdown on misinvoicing, used to disguise illegal capital flows, which had been artificially boosting trade data and which the State Administration of Foreign Exchange cracked down on in early May. Last month's trade data showed, for example, that exports to Hong Kong — one of the key destinations for the invoicing ruse — were down 7.7 percent. This month, exports to Hong Kong fell 7 percent.

The Wall Street Journal

The value of China's yuan hasn't appreciated enough against the US dollar and American manufacturers are bearing the brunt of currency manipulation, Ohio Democrat Sen. Sherrod Brown said Tuesday, a day ahead of the start of meetings between high-level US and Chinese officials.

"It means basically a tariff on our exports to China, and it means a subsidy to Chinese imports here, Chinese exports to the US," said Brown, author of a bill that would allow the US to slap duties on Chinese goods entering the US if the Treasury Department finds that the currencies are misaligned. In a letter to Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew and Secretary of State John Kerry, Brown said the pair should press Chinese officials to end intervention in currency markets.