[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 109 (Thursday, June 22, 2023)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2239-S2240]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 SENATE RESOLUTION 273--PROMOTING STRONGER ECONOMIC RELATIONS BETWEEN 
   THE UNITED STATES, CANADA, AND COUNTRIES IN LATIN AMERICA AND THE 
                               CARIBBEAN

  Mr. MENENDEZ (for himself, Mr. Young, Mr. Kaine, Mr. Hagerty, and Mr. 
Coons) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the 
Committee on Foreign Relations:

                              S. Res. 273

       Whereas, to maintain the role of the United States as a 
     global economic leader and protect the national security 
     interests of the United States, the United States must 
     strengthen economic relations with countries in the Western 
     Hemisphere;
       Whereas ongoing supply chain disruptions resulting from the 
     COVID-19 pandemic demonstrate the need for the United States 
     to increase supply chain resiliency through reshoring and 
     nearshoring initiatives;
       Whereas, in 2019, the People's Republic of China was the 
     top supplier of goods imported into the United States, 
     providing significant quantities of rare earth minerals, 
     pharmaceutical ingredients, medical equipment, and other 
     goods vital to the economic prosperity and national security 
     of the United States;
       Whereas the COVID-19 pandemic and production outages and 
     shipping disruptions in the People's Republic of China have 
     jeopardized worldwide access to critical goods, contributing 
     to an unprecedented, ongoing supply chain crisis that has 
     exposed the severe risks of concentrating global supply 
     chains in the People's Republic of China;
       Whereas Congress has raised concerns about the reliance of 
     the United States on global supply chains based in the 
     People's Republic of China;
       Whereas the People's Republic of China has shown its 
     willingness to use critical supplies as a political tool to 
     advance the goals of the Chinese Communist Party, including 
     when the People's Republic of China--
       (1) threatened to withhold rare earth mineral shipments to 
     Japan; and
       (2) utilized personal protective equipment and vaccines as 
     a diplomatic tool;
       Whereas findings made pursuant to a supply chain review 
     required by President Joseph R. Biden, Jr., under Executive 
     Order 14017 (86 Fed. Reg. 11849) and released on June 8, 
     2021, recommended that, in addition to expanding domestic 
     production capacity, the United States Government use 
     diplomatic and financial tools to cooperate with allies to 
     create more diverse, resilient, and secure supply chains;
       Whereas 8 of the 13 countries in the world that recognize 
     Taiwan are in Latin America and the Caribbean, and 
     nearshoring initiatives can help decrease the susceptibility 
     of such countries to coercive economic pressure from the 
     People's Republic of China;
       Whereas the United States has free trade agreements in 
     effect with 12 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, 
     more than in any other geographic region, providing 
     significant incentives to relocate international supply 
     chains that cannot be relocated to the United States to Latin 
     America and the Caribbean;
       Whereas, in addition to existing free trade agreements and 
     the geographic proximity of countries in Latin America and 
     the Caribbean to the United States, there are several 
     significant advantages for the United States Government and 
     United States entities to relocate supply chains from the 
     People's Republic of China to the Western Hemisphere, 
     including--
       (1) reduced distance to markets in the United States, which 
     will lower freight costs, enable quicker adaptability to 
     fluctuating consumer demand, and reduce the energy used to 
     transport goods;
       (2) longstanding bilateral ties and shared democratic 
     values, which lessen the risk of geopolitical disruptions to 
     supply chains;
       (3) comparative advantages for sourcing and manufacturing 
     key critical goods, including rare earth minerals, 
     pharmaceuticals, medical goods, and semiconductors, when 
     there is a historical inability for such goods to be entirely 
     sourced or manufactured in the United States; and
       (4) access to a highly qualified and young working-age 
     population;
       Whereas the report entitled ``Widening the Aperture: 
     Nearshoring in Our `Near Abroad' '' released by the Wilson 
     Center in April 2021

[[Page S2240]]

     provided evidence that increasing and strengthening supply 
     chains regionally, particularly in Colombia, Mexico, and 
     other countries in the Caribbean and Central America, will, 
     on average, create more jobs in the United States than 
     international supply chains located in other geographic 
     regions;
       Whereas switching as few as 15 percent of imports into the 
     United States from the top 10 source countries of such 
     imports outside of the Western Hemisphere to countries in 
     Latin America and the Caribbean would increase exports from 
     Latin America and the Caribbean by $72,000,000,000 annually, 
     helping the region recover from the effects of the COVID-19 
     pandemic and reducing pressures encouraging migration to the 
     United States;
       Whereas, despite existing and growing opportunities for 
     countries in Latin America and the Caribbean to become 
     crucial actors in global supply chains, including 
     technological advances that have diminished the need to 
     produce in countries with a low cost of labor, challenges to 
     nearshoring remain, including--
       (1) concerns about the rule of law, corruption, and 
     criminal activities that discourage foreign direct investment 
     or significantly raise the costs of shifting production to 
     the region;
       (2) concerns about compliance with and enforcement of 
     international labor and environmental standards;
       (3) underdeveloped physical and digital infrastructure;
       (4) regional economic fragmentation; and
       (5) comparatively lower levels of vocational training;
       Whereas the governments of several countries in Latin 
     America and the Caribbean, including Colombia, the Dominican 
     Republic, and Mexico, have sought to strengthen economic 
     relations with the United States and launched initiatives to 
     incentivize nearshoring;
       Whereas the Inter-American Development Bank (commonly known 
     as ``IDB'') has prioritized efforts to encourage nearshoring 
     in Latin America and the Caribbean, including by--
       (1) making economic integration and the strengthening of 
     regional supply chains 1 of 5 core pillars in the agenda 
     outlined in the document entitled ``Vision 2025, Reinvest in 
     the Americas'';
       (2) including nearshoring as a business line of IDB Invest 
     for the first time in the history of IDB;
       (3) hosting a high-level dialogue with more than 500 
     private sector leaders on December 2, 2020, to assess how to 
     increase production capacity and supply chain resilience in 
     the region; and
       (4) launching the largest private sector coalition in the 
     history of the IDB to explore opportunities for reinvesting 
     in countries in the Western Hemisphere, including through 
     nearshoring initiatives and a toolkit to incentivize and 
     finance nearshoring activities in the Western Hemisphere;
       Whereas the United States Government has taken steps to 
     advance efforts that would facilitate reshoring and 
     nearshoring in the Western Hemisphere, including by--
       (1) announcing the first-ever semiconductor forum between 
     the Governments of the United States, Mexico, and Canada and 
     the private sector to align government policies and increase 
     investment in regional semiconductor supply chains; and
       (2) developing the Americas Partnership for Economic 
     Prosperity to expand regional trade ties, bolster regional 
     economic competitiveness, and strengthen regional cooperation 
     on supply chain resilience, labor and environmental 
     standards, rule of law and anti-corruption initiatives, and 
     other critical issues; and
       Whereas the United States Government can further leverage 
     diplomatic, foreign assistance, and financing tools to 
     strengthen the participation of Latin American and the 
     Caribbean in global supply chains and address challenges to 
     nearshoring, including through the activities of the United 
     States Agency for International Development and the United 
     States International Development Finance Corporation: Now, 
     therefore, be it
       Resolved, That the Senate--
       (1) recognizes that increased tensions between the United 
     States and the People's Republic of China and the COVID-19 
     pandemic have--
       (A) exposed severe vulnerabilities attributable to 
     overreliance by the United States and other countries on 
     supply chains based solely or mainly in the People's Republic 
     of China; and
       (B) heightened the importance of the United States 
     diversifying its supply chains through reshoring and 
     nearshoring initiatives to increase resiliency against future 
     disruptions;
       (2) emphasizes that reshoring efforts of sufficient scale 
     to increase domestic production capacity and relocate supply 
     chains to the United States remain critical and should be 
     encouraged and implemented;
       (3) emphasizes that--
       (A) nearshoring efforts should be pursued in a 
     complementary fashion to better achieve more resilient, 
     diverse, and secure supply chains, particularly for goods 
     unlikely to be produced in the United States;
       (B) nearshoring in Latin America and the Caribbean, 
     relative to relying on supply chains in other geographic 
     regions, has the greatest potential to contribute to the 
     economic prosperity and security of the United States while 
     also advancing the post-pandemic economic recovery of 
     countries in the Western Hemisphere;
       (C) nearshoring in Latin America and the Caribbean provides 
     greater opportunities for expanding co-production operations 
     and other cooperative business ventures with United States 
     entities; and
       (D) nearshoring in Latin America and the Caribbean can 
     complement and enhance efforts by the United States to 
     support democratic consolidation across the region by 
     strengthening the rule of law, encouraging competitiveness, 
     promoting education and vocational training, and raising 
     standards on corruption, labor, and environmental issues;
       (4) supports initiatives by the Inter-American Development 
     Bank, the Government of Canada, governments in Latin America 
     and the Caribbean, and the private sector to finance, 
     incentivize, or otherwise promote nearshoring in Latin 
     America and the Caribbean;
       (5) encourages the United States Agency for International 
     Development and the United States International Development 
     Finance Corporation to strengthen programmatic support for 
     initiatives likely to facilitate the relocation of global 
     supply chains to the Western Hemisphere, including through 
     increased collaboration with each other, the private sector, 
     the Inter-American Development Bank, Canada, and countries in 
     Latin America and the Caribbean;
       (6) calls for governments in Latin America and the 
     Caribbean to increase opportunities for nearshoring in the 
     region by--
       (A) modernizing and consolidating physical and digital 
     infrastructure;
       (B) combating corruption, strengthening the rule of law, 
     promoting education and vocational training, enhancing labor 
     and environmental standards, and improving democratic 
     governance; and
       (C) pursuing other efforts to facilitate the ease of doing 
     business in and attract foreign direct investment to the 
     region, including by leveraging strong relationships with 
     Taiwan; and
       (7) urges the Secretary of State, in coordination with the 
     United States Agency for International Development, the 
     United States International Development Finance Corporation, 
     and the heads of all other relevant Federal agencies and 
     departments, to prioritize efforts to advance nearshoring in 
     Latin America and the Caribbean, including by--
       (A) strengthening support for the activities described in 
     paragraph (6);
       (B) engaging with governments in the Western Hemisphere to 
     explore opportunities to lower trade barriers, streamline 
     customs and other regulations, support capacity building 
     programs to strengthen environmental and labor standards, 
     establish incentives for mutually beneficial co-production 
     arrangements, and facilitate economic integration of the 
     region;
       (C) strengthening legal regimes and monitoring and 
     enforcement measures relating to labor standards to ensure 
     that--
       (i) any enhanced sourcing relationship with a country does 
     not support or beget labor abuse or other human rights 
     abuses, such as those found in the People's Republic of 
     China; and
       (ii) any new investment under a nearshoring program has 
     sufficient labor standards and benefits the workers in such 
     country;
       (D) ensuring that nearshoring activities are consistent 
     with efforts to improve supply chain energy efficiency, 
     reduce the energy used to transport goods, and advance 
     environmental sustainability;
       (E) working in partnership with multilateral development 
     banks and private investors to create incentives for entities 
     to relocate supply chains from the People's Republic of China 
     to the Western Hemisphere, including by financing the 
     development of regional technology hubs with strong labor and 
     environmental regulations; and
       (F) using all available options, including transparency 
     mechanisms, to ensure that access to supply chains in the 
     Western Hemisphere cannot be exploited by the People's 
     Republic of China.

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