"We've got to make sure that countries we're trading with are being fair. I believe in free trade," Obama said at a townhall-style meeting in Racine, Wisconsin.

"If China has a currency that's undervalued, that makes our exports more expensive. It makes their imports cheaper.

"So we've been putting pressure on them to say, you know what, let's make sure that we're not favoring one side or the other in this trade deal," he said.

China has announced plans to allow its currency to be more flexible, and Obama said at a Group of 20 meeting in Toronto on Sunday he believed the yuan would rise significantly.
 

Obama also said his economic stimulus law did its job by staving off another Great Depression.

But he acknowledged that it's tough to make the argument that things could have been worse.

Obama made his comments in response to a question at a town hall meeting.

He seemed to acknowledge public skepticism about the effectiveness of last year's $787 billion stimulus bill.

Obama joked he could have sent people a check with his picture on it. Instead, the stimulus bill gave most workers a tax cut in their paycheck.

A check in the mail might have been better politics, Obama said, but the tax cut in the weekly paycheck worked better economically.