BY MATTHEW DALTON AND DIANA KINCH

The World Trade Organization in the coming months will examine whether international trade rules can be used to punish governments that manipulate the value of their currencies, a debate driven by Brazilian anger over China's policy of keeping the yuan pegged to the U.S. dollar.

The review opens a new front in the debate over China's dollar peg, making the Geneva-based arbiter of trade disputes the latest international institution to tackle global angst over the issue. It comes as Western companies have started to make the argument that the peg amounts to an unfair export subsidy that should be fought ...