§286gg Elimination of Trade Restrictions

Summary

The Secretary of the Treasury must tell the U.S. Executive Directors at the multilateral development banks and at the International Monetary Fund to hold broad talks with bank and Fund leaders and other directors. They must create aid policies that, as much as possible, reduce trade and investment barriers, stop unfair trade or investment practices, and boost helpful economic ties. The Secretary must work closely with the Trade Policy Committee and press for staff cooperation with the World Trade Organization Secretariat. Before any bank or the Fund gives financial help to a country, the U.S. Executive Directors must try to get that country to agree to end unfair trade and investment practices, in a way that fits its balance of payments adjustment program, when the U.S. Trade Representative (after consulting the Trade Policy Committee) finds those practices seriously harm the global trading system. These practices include five kinds: predatory export subsidies for farm goods; other export subsidies like below-market financing; unreasonable import limits; trade-related performance rules on foreign investment; and actions that break international agreements. Treasury must consider a country’s progress on these targets when deciding its U.S. position on loans or drawings, and must report to the appropriate congressional committees if it supports aid despite unmet targets. The multilateral development banks named are the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (World Bank), the Inter-American Development Bank, the African Development Bank, and the Asian Development Bank.