New set of bills would counter CCP’s Belt and Road initiative: ‘we can silence China’s siren song’

FIRST ON FOX: The Monroe Doctrine is back in full swing, both with the president-elect Donald Trump’s pushing for the takeover of the Panama Canal and new legislation from Rep. Mark Green to encourage investment in Latin America.

The Homeland Security chairman and the Tennessee Republican introduced a pair of bills on Friday: one to use the tariffs to create a low-interest loan program for companies to move from China to Latin America

Another would use tariffs collected on Chinese goods to provide a tax incentive to offset the costs of moving American companies to bring their operations back to American soil.

The Western Hemisphere Nearshoring Act would institute a program through the International Development Finance Corporation to lower interest rates with tariffs.

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Under the Bring American Companies Home Act, amounts paid to move inventory, equipment, or supplies used in a trade or business from China in the US it would be allowed as a tax deduction. The program would be funded through a trust fund from collected tariffs.

“The malign influence of Communist China continues to spread throughout the Western Hemisphere. It is time for us to take a stand. By rebuilding infrastructure and manufacturing jobs in this region, we can silence the siren song of China,” Green told Fox News Digital.

Speaker Mark Green, R-Tenn., holds a news conference before the House Homeland Security Committee hearing to “Examine the Dereliction of Duty of Secretary Mayorkas,” at the Cannon Building on Wednesday, 14 June 2023. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

The US has long invested heavily in Latin America and the Caribbean, but China is South America’s largest trading partner and benefactor. As part of his Belt and Road Initiativeflexes its muscle more and more with grants and loans across the continent. China inaugurated a megaport in Peru in November.

Lawmakers have begun to float ideas to “reconcentrate” China’s supply chains and reassert hegemony in the Western Hemisphere with trade partnerships across the Americas.

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vice president Kamala Harris, tapped to lead the border response, focusing on the “root causes” of immigration, trying to bring investment to Latin America to improve conditions for locals so they don’t make the dangerous journey to the US border.

A cargo ship passes through the Agua Clara locks of the Panama Canal in Colón, Panama on September 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix, file)

Trump has signaled that he will re-prioritize the Western Hemisphere, a priority that dates back to the Monroe Doctrine of 1823, by calling on the United States to regain the Panama Canal.

In recent weeks, Trump has insisted that China has control of the canal and that Panama is “ripping off” the US

“Look, the Panama Canal is vital to our country,” Trump said. “It’s operated by China—China!—and we gave it the Panama Canal panamawe didn’t give it to China. They have abused this gift.”

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China is the second largest user of the channel after the US and a major investor in the country. Two of the canal’s ports of entry are owned by a subsidiary of a Hong Kong-based company, CK Hutchison. Beijing also helped finance a new bridge over the waterway.