OPINION:
We cannot fight something with nothing. Even though we have a bipartisan consensus acknowledging we are being challenged by the Chinese Communist Party and Russian dictator Vladimir Putin’s oppressive regime, we have not figured out bipartisan responses to these challenges yet.
A new piece of legislation would move us forward in a big way in the Western Hemisphere, one part of the world where we need to pay more attention.
The introduction of the Americas Trade and Investment Act, aka the Americas Act, represents a bipartisan response to counter these threats effectively, involving key figures from the Senate and the House of Representatives across the political spectrum.
Specifically, Sen. Bill Cassidy, Louisiana Republican, and Sen. Michael Bennet, Colorado Democrat, alongside Reps. Maria Elvira Salazar, Florida Republican, and Adriano Espaillat, New York Democrat, have made a great step forward in offering a positive agenda that speaks to the hopes and aspirations of our friends and potential friends.
The most innovative aspect of the bill is the commitment to revitalizing the economies of the Western Hemisphere by allocating up to $70 billion in loans and grants to encourage businesses to make the strategic shift from China to the Americas. The act also goes beyond mere economic incentives; it lays the foundation for a robust digital governance framework and fortifies the Biden administration’s Americas Partnership for Economic Prosperity initiative, signaling a significant leap toward integrating technology and trade for future prosperity in the region.
China is making major inroads in the Western Hemisphere. Twenty-five years ago, only a handful of Western Hemisphere countries at most considered China their primary trading partner. Today, the number of countries for which China holds this position has surged dramatically. For example, China’s economic engagement with Latin America and the Caribbean has grown exponentially. Twenty-five years ago, China accounted for less than 2% of Latin America’s exports. By 2021, however, trade between China and Latin America rose drastically, translating to China as South America’s top trading partner and the second largest for Latin America after the United States.
As of 2023, 21 Caribbean and Latin American countries, including Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Ecuador, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela, have joined China’s Belt and Road Initiative. Chinese state-owned companies have heavily invested in the region’s energy, infrastructure and mining sectors. The expansion of China’s influence is evident in several areas, including the extraction of minerals and growing military partnerships.
The United States would be foolish to stand idly by. Still, we cannot just tell our partners in the Western Hemisphere, “Do not work with the Chinese Communist Party” or “Do not take their attractive partnerships when we, the U.S., are not offering anything.” Rather, we need to respond positively and constructively.
The introduction of the Americas Act is a bipartisan response to this challenge. Congress should pass this legislation, as we need it to enhance trade relations, support job creation in the region — thereby reducing the need for migration to the United States — and promote regional stability. By encouraging the reshoring and nearshoring of jobs and industries to the Americas, the bill directly counters China’s influence and benefits our partners and the U.S. economy.
In my recent book, “The American Imperative,” I argue that the era of great power competition with the Chinese Communist Party and Mr. Putin’s thug regime. Most of this competition will play out in the Global South (think “developing countries” in Latin America, Africa, Southeast Asia, etc.). Unlike traditional conflicts, this competition is likely characterized by nonmilitary competition, with countries using various forms of nonmilitary power (“soft power”) to achieve economic, political, and national security goals. The outcome of our competition in the Global South will determine how this all plays out.
We will compete with China and Russia over whether countries choose China’s telecommunications services, whether Russia, China or others control essential mineral resources, who builds, who owns and who sets global standards on infrastructure, who offers vaccines (as happened with COVID-19), and who earns mind share and influence through media and strategic communications. For example, Russia, through its media outlet RT, has made inroads in the Western Hemisphere.
These choices are the building blocks that will determine who will lead and who will shape the nature of the future. If we are not careful, China will put together a separate system that will set the global rules of the future.
The Americas Act is designed to fortify the United States’ standing in the Western Hemisphere by deploying a positive strategy centered on trade, investment, and developmental cooperation that speaks to the hopes and aspirations of our partners.
In addition to economic initiatives, the measure strongly emphasizes promoting democratic governance and the rule of law. It proposes a novel approach where partner countries would sign onto a democracy, trade, and rule of law pact through a memorandum of understanding. This mechanism is not merely symbolic; it carries the weight of possible suspension or expulsion for countries that fail to follow their commitments, reinforcing the importance of a united front of nations that uphold shared democratic values.
Finally, the Americas Act introduces various initiatives to deepen cultural and intellectual relationships between the U.S. and Latin America. Key efforts include creating the American University of the Americas, more language training, and expanding scholarship programs. Enhancing people-to-people connections is crucial, and we need to have deeper connectivity with several countries in the region, specifically Brazil and the southern cone of South America. More understanding of Portuguese in the U.S. is vital (we are the second-largest Spanish-speaking country in the world, but Portuguese is spoken by no more than 0.2% of the global population).
By fostering economic growth, championing democratic values, and building closer people-to-people ties, the act offers a comprehensive approach to revitalizing U.S. engagement with Latin America and offers ideas for how we engage with the rest of the Global South. Simultaneously, it serves as a strategic countermeasure to degrade Chinese influence in the region, enabling the United States to maintain leadership in its own neighborhood. The Americas Act is a great step forward. It should be passed.
• Daniel F. Runde is a senior vice president at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. He is also the author of the book “The American Imperative: Reclaiming Global Leadership Through Soft Power” (Bombardier Books, 2023).
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