III 

118TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. RES. 273 

Promoting stronger economic relations between the United States, Canada, 

and countries in Latin America and the Caribbean. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

JUNE 22, 2023 

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 

RESOLUTION 

Promoting stronger economic relations between the United 

States, Canada, and countries in Latin America and 

the Caribbean. 

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, proVerDate Sep 11 2014 03:48 Jun 23, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6300 E:\BILLS\SR273.IS SR273

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viding 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 


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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 workingage population; 


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Whereas the report entitled ‘‘Widening the Aperture: 

Nearshoring in Our ‘Near Abroad’ ’’ released by the Wilson Center in April 2021 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 


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(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 


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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 

1 Resolved, That the Senate— 

2 (1) recognizes that increased tensions between 

3 the United States and the People’s Republic of 

4 China and the COVID–19 pandemic have— 

5 (A) exposed severe vulnerabilities attrib6 utable to overreliance by the United States and 

7 other countries on supply chains based solely or 

8 mainly in the People’s Republic of China; and 

9 (B) heightened the importance of the 

10 United States diversifying its supply chains 

11 through reshoring and nearshoring initiatives to 

12 increase resiliency against future disruptions; 


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1 (2) emphasizes that reshoring efforts of suffi2 cient scale to increase domestic production capacity 

3 and relocate supply chains to the United States re4 main critical and should be encouraged and imple5 mented; 

6 (3) emphasizes that— 

7 (A) nearshoring efforts should be pursued 

8 in a complementary fashion to better achieve 

9 more resilient, diverse, and secure supply 

10 chains, particularly for goods unlikely to be pro11 duced in the United States; 

12 (B) nearshoring in Latin America and the 

13 Caribbean, relative to relying on supply chains 

14 in other geographic regions, has the greatest 

15 potential to contribute to the economic pros16 perity and security of the United States while 

17 also advancing the post-pandemic economic re18 covery of countries in the Western Hemisphere; 

19 (C) nearshoring in Latin America and the 

20 Caribbean provides greater opportunities for ex21 panding co-production operations and other co22 operative business ventures with United States 

23 entities; and 

24 (D) nearshoring in Latin America and the 

25 Caribbean can complement and enhance efforts 


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1 by the United States to support democratic con2 solidation across the region by strengthening 

3 the rule of law, encouraging competitiveness, 

4 promoting education and vocational training, 

5 and raising standards on corruption, labor, and 

6 environmental issues; 

7 (4) supports initiatives by the Inter-American 

8 Development Bank, the Government of Canada, gov9 ernments in Latin America and the Caribbean, and 

10 the private sector to finance, incentivize, or other11 wise promote nearshoring in Latin America and the 

12 Caribbean; 

13 (5) encourages the United States Agency for 

14 International Development and the United States 

15 International Development Finance Corporation to 

16 strengthen programmatic support for initiatives like17 ly to facilitate the relocation of global supply chains 

18 to the Western Hemisphere, including through in19 creased collaboration with each other, the private 

20 sector, the Inter-American Development Bank, Can21 ada, and countries in Latin America and the Carib22 bean; 

23 (6) calls for governments in Latin America and 

24 the Caribbean to increase opportunities for 

25 nearshoring in the region by— 


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1 (A) modernizing and consolidating physical 

2 and digital infrastructure; 

3 (B) combating corruption, strengthening 

4 the rule of law, promoting education and voca5 tional training, enhancing labor and environ6 mental standards, and improving democratic 

7 governance; and 

8 (C) pursuing other efforts to facilitate the 

9 ease of doing business in and attract foreign di10 rect investment to the region, including by 

11 leveraging strong relationships with Taiwan; 

12 and 

13 (7) urges the Secretary of State, in coordina14 tion with the United States Agency for International 

15 Development, the United States International Devel16 opment Finance Corporation, and the heads of all 

17 other relevant Federal agencies and departments, to 

18 prioritize efforts to advance nearshoring in Latin 

19 America and the Caribbean, including by— 

20 (A) strengthening support for the activities 

21 described in paragraph (6); 

22 (B) engaging with governments in the 

23 Western Hemisphere to explore opportunities to 

24 lower trade barriers, streamline customs and 

25 other regulations, support capacity building 


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1 programs to strengthen environmental and 

2 labor standards, establish incentives for mutu3 ally beneficial co-production arrangements, and 

4 facilitate economic integration of the region; 

5 (C) strengthening legal regimes and moni6 toring and enforcement measures relating to 

7 labor standards to ensure that— 

8 (i) any enhanced sourcing relationship 

9 with a country does not support or beget 

10 labor abuse or other human rights abuses, 

11 such as those found in the People’s Repub12 lic of China; and 

13 (ii) any new investment under a 

14 nearshoring program has sufficient labor 

15 standards and benefits the workers in such 

16 country; 

17 (D) ensuring that nearshoring activities 

18 are consistent with efforts to improve supply 

19 chain energy efficiency, reduce the energy used 

20 to transport goods, and advance environmental 

21 sustainability; 

22 (E) working in partnership with multilat23 eral development banks and private investors to 

24 create incentives for entities to relocate supply 

25 chains from the People’s Republic of China to 


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1 the Western Hemisphere, including by financing 

2 the development of regional technology hubs 

3 with strong labor and environmental regula4 tions; and 

5 (F) using all available options, including 

6 transparency mechanisms, to ensure that access 

7 to supply chains in the Western Hemisphere 

8 cannot be exploited by the People’s Republic of 

9 China. 

Æ 


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