III 

117TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION S. RES. 661 

Promoting stronger economic relations between the United States and 

countries in Latin America and the Caribbean. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

JUNE 7, 2022 

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 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, providing significant quantities of rare earth minerals, pharVerDate Sep 11 2014 00:07 Jun 08, 2022 Jkt 029200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6300 E:\BILLS\SR661.IS SR661

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maceutical 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 


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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; 

Whereas the report entitled ‘‘Widening the Aperture: 

Nearshoring in Our ‘Near Abroad’ ’’ released by the WilVerDate Sep 11 2014 00:07 Jun 08, 2022 Jkt 029200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6300 E:\BILLS\SR661.IS SR661

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son 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; and 

(4) regional economic fragmentation; 

Whereas the governments of several countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, including Colombia, the DominiVerDate Sep 11 2014 00:07 Jun 08, 2022 Jkt 029200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6300 E:\BILLS\SR661.IS SR661

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can 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; and 

Whereas the United States Government can 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— 


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1 (1) recognizes that increased tensions between 

2 the United States and the People’s Republic of 

3 China and the COVID–19 pandemic have— 

4 (A) exposed severe vulnerabilities attrib5 utable to overreliance by the United States and 

6 other countries on supply chains based solely or 

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

8 (B) heightened the importance of the 

9 United States diversifying its supply chains 

10 through reshoring and nearshoring initiatives to 

11 increase resiliency against future disruptions; 

12 (2) emphasizes that reshoring efforts of suffi13 cient scale to increase domestic production capacity 

14 and relocate supply chains to the United States re15 main critical and should be encouraged and imple16 mented; 

17 (3) emphasizes that— 

18 (A) nearshoring efforts should be pursued 

19 in a complementary fashion to better achieve 

20 more resilient, diverse, and secure supply 

21 chains, particularly for goods unlikely to be 

22 manufactured in the United States; 

23 (B) nearshoring in Latin America and the 

24 Caribbean, relative to relying on supply chains 

25 in other geographic regions, has the greatest 


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1 potential to contribute to the economic pros2 perity and security of the United States while 

3 also advancing the post-pandemic economic re4 covery of countries in the Western Hemisphere; 

5 (C) nearshoring in Latin America and the 

6 Caribbean provides greater opportunities for ex7 panding co-production operations and other co8 operative business ventures with United States 

9 entities; and 

10 (D) nearshoring in Latin America and the 

11 Caribbean can complement and enhance efforts 

12 by the United States to support democratic con13 solidation across the region by strengthening 

14 the rule of law, encouraging competitiveness, 

15 and raising standards on corruption, labor, and 

16 environmental issues; 

17 (4) supports initiatives by the Inter-American 

18 Development Bank, governments in Latin America 

19 and the Caribbean, and the private sector to finance, 

20 incentivize, or otherwise promote nearshoring in 

21 Latin America and the Caribbean; 

22 (5) encourages the United States Agency for 

23 International Development and the United States 

24 International Development Finance Corporation to 

25 strengthen programmatic support for initiatives likeVerDate Sep 11 2014 00:07 Jun 08, 2022 Jkt 029200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\SR661.IS SR661

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1 ly to facilitate the relocation of global supply chains 

2 to the Western Hemisphere, including through in3 creased collaboration with each other, the private 

4 sector, the Inter-American Development Bank, and 

5 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean; 

6 (6) calls for governments in Latin America and 

7 the Caribbean to increase opportunities for 

8 nearshoring in the region by— 

9 (A) modernizing and consolidating physical 

10 and digital infrastructure; 

11 (B) combating corruption, strengthening 

12 the rule of law, enhancing labor and environ13 mental standards, and improving democratic 

14 governance; and 

15 (C) pursuing other efforts to facilitate the 

16 ease of doing business in and attract foreign di17 rect investment to the region, including by 

18 leveraging strong relationships with Taiwan; 

19 and 

20 (7) urges the Secretary of State, in coordina21 tion with the United States Agency for International 

22 Development, the United States International Devel23 opment Finance Corporation, and the heads of all 

24 other relevant Federal agencies and departments, to 


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1 take a leading role in advancing nearshoring in 

2 Latin America and the Caribbean, including by— 

3 (A) strengthening support for the activities 

4 described in paragraph (6); 

5 (B) engaging with governments in the 

6 Western Hemisphere to explore opportunities to 

7 lower trade barriers, streamline customs and 

8 other regulations, support capacity building 

9 programs to strengthen environmental and 

10 labor standards, establish incentives for mutu11 ally beneficial co-production arrangements, and 

12 facilitate economic integration of the region; 

13 (C) strengthening legal regimes and moni14 toring and enforcement measures relating to 

15 labor standards to ensure that— 

16 (i) any enhanced sourcing relationship 

17 with a country does not support or beget 

18 labor abuse or other human rights abuses, 

19 such as those found in the People’s Repub20 lic of China; and 

21 (ii) any new investment under a 

22 nearshoring program has sufficient labor 

23 standards and benefits the workers in such 

24 country; 


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1 (D) ensuring that nearshoring activities 

2 are consistent with efforts to improve supply 

3 chain energy efficiency, reduce the energy used 

4 to transport goods, and advance environmental 

5 sustainability; and 

6 (E) working in partnership with multilat7 eral development banks and private investors to 

8 create incentives for entities to relocate supply 

9 chains from the People’s Republic of China to 

10 the Western Hemisphere, including by financing 

11 the development of regional technology hubs 

12 with strong labor and environmental regula13 tions. 

Æ 


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