Santa Cruz Standard

Rep. Jimmy Panetta (D-Calif.), along with a bipartisan group of lawmakers, issued a statement July 25 on the Inter-American Development Bank Transparency Act, which the group co-sponsored. The lawmakers' goal with the bill is to curb the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) influence in Latin America and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).

“The Chinese Communist Party is increasingly utilizing the Inter-American Development Bank to expand its reach, influence, and economic leverage over Latin American countries,” Panetta said in the statement. “I’m proud to introduce this bipartisan legislation that would ensure the United States understands the full scope and scale of the CCP’s influence on the IDB and develop an action plan to counter potential malign actions. 

"Ensuring U.S. leadership in the development of our Latin American partners is essential to safeguarding our national and economic security as well as our shared democratic values,” Panetta said in the statement. 

The IDB is the largest and foremost international financial institution serving Latin America and the Caribbean. In 2022, it allocated $23 billion toward financing sustainable economic and institutional development in the region, according to the statement.

Despite the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)'s ownership of only 0.1% of shares in the IDB, it receives an outsize share of contracts awarded by the IDP, the statement reports, and the way the CCP leverages the IDB is a significant concern to the lawmakers.

"The CCP has even used its economic leverage to pressure nations to bend to the Party’s will, notably pressuring IDB member Paraguay to abandon Taiwan in exchange for vaccines," the statement reports.

The proposed bill would confront any apparent CCP coercion and require the Department of the Treasury to report on various issues to Congress.

This bill would require the use of the US voice, vote, and influence at the IDB to counter the Chinese Communist Party's malign influence and coercive practices," the statement reports, "and require Treasury to submit a report on, among other things: "Whether the CCP has co-opted the IDB to spread its influence; the scope and scale of any Chinese company's influence and involvement in IDB or IDB contracts; a list of IDB projects near U.S. military bases in the region; and the extent of CCP tech subject to U.S. export controls involved in IDB projects."

Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) said in the statement that the U.S. has allowed the CCP to "undermine our partnerships in the Western hemisphere through the Inter-American Development Bank.

"The critical bipartisan legislation we are introducing today will ensure U.S. taxpayer dollars are no longer funneled to CCP-controlled companies that undermine America’s interests and export the CCP’s oppressive surveillance capabilities in our own hemisphere," Stefanik said in the statement. "We cannot allow Communist China to exploit our institutions for their own malign interests."

"For too long, the Chinese Communist Party has exploited its presence in the Inter-American Development Bank to advance its own geopolitical, economic, and technological goals. Latin American citizens deserve to have the IDB serve their economic development, not as a vector of CCP malign influence," said Mike Gallagher (R-Wisc.) and chair of the House Select Committee on the CCP, said in the statement.