A series of bills were proposed by the U.S. Congress to check China, a strategic rival, by banning World Bank (WB) loans to China and depriving the U.S. of its best-favored treatment of China.
Sen. John Baraso (Republican, Wyoming) said in a press release on the 23rd (local time) that multilateral development banks such as the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) have proposed a bill to ban loans to China.
The bill calls on the Treasury to instruct a U.S. representative at a multilateral development bank to oppose the bank’s offer of new or existing loans to China or technical support.
“Even after 2016, when China exceeded the loan eligibility criteria, the World Bank approved $9.6 billion worth of Chinese projects, and the Asian Development Bank provided $10.6 billion in loans,” he said in a press release.
Earlier on the 21st, Senator Josh Hawley (Republican and Missouri) also proposed a bill to stop the so-called most favored nation treatment (MFN) of China.
“As we face a new era of competition with China, we need an agenda to make our working class strong and independent,” he said in a press release distributed at the time. “The beginning can start with canceling the sweet deal that the elites in Washington, DC gave to China 23 years ago.”
If the treatment of the most favored country, called the “permanent and normal trade relationship (PNTR)” status in the U.S., is deprived, U.S. tariffs on Chinese products will rise significantly.
The U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Committee (USCC), a U.S. congressional advisory body, also recommended in a report in November last year that the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) investigates whether China complies with the 1999 U.S.-China Market Access Agreement.
