Source: The Canadian Press

Jim Flaherty is warning a currency war over exchange rates could disrupt trade and derail the nascent economic recovery.

The Canadian finance minister says G20 representatives will thrash out the issue later this week at meetings in Washington, D.C.

The United States and China have long been at odds over the value of the yuan, which Washington says is being kept artificially undervalued by Beijing.

The long-standing issue was given greater impetus with a new global forecast.

The IMF forecast shows emerging nations are seeing their economies rebounding faster from the recession than the United States, Canada and other advanced economies.

Flaherty says he’s been discussing the issue with his U.S. counterpart and agrees with the importance of resolving the issue.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner says countries like China with large trade surpluses must let their currencies rise.

If not, he says, other nations will be forced into artificially devaluating their exchange rates to keep pace.