While the US continues to put pressure on China to float its currency, some in Washington are suggesting further flexing of political muscle will only cause strain to a vital trading relationship.

Over the last five days the US has imposed four quotas on the Chinese textile industry on cotton products in the hope that further restrictions on China's textile industry would push Beijing to loosen its decade-old yuan peg of 8.28 to the greenback, reports UPI.

"I think we need to be very, very careful about Chinese relations," Thomas Donahue, president of the US Chambers of Commerce, told reporters at a news conference Thursday.

"These are huge trading relations. What we need to do is resolve these issues without a lot of punitive action by Congress.

"I am encouraging that we should be evolutionary, not revolutionary," said Donahue. "We are saying to Congress we've got to deal with China in a strong way, but in a reasonable way ... (with) enlightened self-interest."

Washington has been under extreme pressure from US manufactures that claim that surging textile exports from China have created a "threat of market disruption".

"American manufacturing and its corresponding jobs will not survive without improved government programmes and a concerted effort to fully enforce existing trade laws," said William J. Jones, Chairman of US Business and Industry Council.

"Our trade polices are not working, and small and medium-sized American manufactures are paying the price. We can survive, but not without a level playing field here at home and in export markets abroad," Jones added.

Chinese exports have been on the rise for the last six months, according to the latest report issued by the Chinese customs bureau last week.

Exports rose 32 percent from last year, to $62.2 billion, while imports increased 16 percent to $57.6 billion, causing a trade surplus of $4.59 billion. Textile exports also increased 16 percent in the first four months of this year to $19.3 billion.

In an attempt to appease US manufactures and take further action against the Chinese textile industry, the Senate proposed a bill that would impose a 27.5-percent import tax on Chinese textiles if China does not take action to float its currency in six months.

Currently, the US-China trade deficit set a record last year at $162 billion, making it the largest trade imbalance with a single country.

On Tuesday, the US department of treasury released a report that took a light view on the ongoing Chinese currency issue.

Treasury Secretary John Snow said Chinese officials had publicly acknowledged "the need to move to a more flexible system" and that the current debate over China's currency regime was "clouded by a number of misconceptions of US policy."

Snow explained that the treasury department was not calling for a full float of the yuan in a fully liberalised capital market, but rather was calling for an "intermediate step" before a full float.