Washington, D.C. — U.S. Senators Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) and John Cornyn (R-Texas) urged U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent to direct the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) to strengthen engagement with Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) countries to help them develop mechanisms like CFIUS to review sensitive foreign investments. This will help safeguard the national security of the United States and our regional partners, as Chinese state-linked firms invest heavily in strategic sectors like space, infrastructure, critical minerals, and energy across the Western Hemisphere.
“CFIUS, under the Secretary of the Treasury’s leadership, is critical to safeguarding U.S. national security by conducting thorough reviews of certain inbound investments,” wrote Bennet and Cornyn. “It is critical that the Treasury build on these efforts by working with LAC region countries to establish and coordinate investment review mechanisms. We were pleased to see the 2023 U.S.-Mexico agreement to collaborate on the potential establishment of a Mexican foreign investment screening system. But the United States must do more, particularly as China, Iran, Russia, and other strategic adversaries seek to expand their influence in the LAC region.”
For decades, the United States was the top trading partner for LAC countries. However, the senators highlight that China is now South America’s top trading partner and the second-largest for Latin America as a whole, after the United States.
“America’s ties with the LAC region are too important to not help our partners protect their economic security – which is directly intertwined with our own,” concluded the senators. “Given these developments and President Donald Trump’s calls for LAC countries such as Mexico to do more to stop the transshipment of Chinese goods in the U.S., we urge you to direct CFIUS to help LAC countries create the mechanisms they need to limit sensitive investment, including from China. The United States and our partners benefit when we work together to guard against foreign investments posing national security risks.”
This week, Bennet and Cornyn, alongside U.S. Senator Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) and bipartisan colleagues, introduced legislation to protect U.S. national security by limiting American investments in certain advanced technologies in China. Additionally, Bennet and U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy (R-La.) lead the Americas Act, the only major strategic economic plan to counter China’s geopolitical and economic influence in the Western Hemisphere.
The text of the letter is available HERE and below.
Dear Secretary Bessent:
We urge you to direct the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) to strengthen engagement with Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) countries to encourage their adoption and coordination of inbound foreign investment review mechanisms like CFIUS, such as by expanding upon information exchange processes to provide technical assistance and personnel training.
CFIUS, under the Secretary of the Treasury’s leadership, is critical to safeguarding U.S. national security by conducting thorough reviews of certain inbound investments. While President Gerald Ford established CFIUS by executive order in 1975, Congress later codified CFIUS authorities in Section 721 of the Defense Production Act and updated them to address evolving national security risks. The Foreign Investment Risk Review Modernization Act of 2018 (FIRRMA) made crucial reforms to CFIUS, expanding its jurisdiction and review process.
In FIRRMA, Congress also required the CFIUS chairperson, the Secretary of the Treasury, to establish a process for cooperation with allies and partners on investment screening. In recent years, CFIUS has made significant progress on this front, supporting over 30 countries’ investment screening mechanism proposals, revisions, or enactments. A broad swath of U.S. allies and partners – such as Australia, Japan, India, Israel, Norway, South Korea, and Taiwan – have strengthened or created such mechanisms.
It is critical that the Treasury build on these efforts by working with LAC region countries to establish and coordinate investment review mechanisms. We were pleased to see the 2023 U.S.-Mexico agreement to collaborate on the potential establishment of a Mexican foreign investment screening system. But the United States must do more, particularly as China, Iran, Russia, and other strategic adversaries seek to expand their influence in the LAC region.
For decades, the United States was the top trading partner of most LAC countries. Now, however, China is South America’s top trading partner and the second-largest, after the United States, for Latin America as a whole. China-Latin America trade has increased almost 4,000 percent since 2000 – from $12.5 billion to $480 billion in 2022. That could double by 2035. China is a leading creditor in the region, too.
Chinese state-owned or state-linked firms continue to invest heavily in strategic sectors across the LAC region, such as the 3.5 billion deep-water port in Chancay, Peru – which Chinese officials boast will serve as a “gateway from South America to Asia.” General Laura Richardson, who recently retired as Commander of U.S. Southern Command, has warned that China’s People’s Liberation Army Navy could use Chancay, noting “this is a playbook that we’ve seen play out in other places, not just in Latin America.”
America’s ties with the LAC region are too important to not help our partners protect their economic security – which is directly intertwined with our own.
Mexico was our top trading partner in 2023 ($797.9 billion); Brazil was 15th ($83.7 billion); and both Chile and Colombia ranked among the top 30 ($34.3 billion and $33.7 billion, respectively). In 2023, U.S. trade with Central America, South America, and the Caribbean was worth a combined $344.7 billion – more than our trade with any other individual country except Mexico, Canada, and China.
Given these developments and President Donald Trump’s calls for LAC countries such as Mexico to do more to stop the transshipment of Chinese goods in the U.S., we urge you to direct CFIUS to help LAC countries create the mechanisms they need to limit sensitive investment, including from China.
The United States and our partners benefit when we work together to guard against foreign investments posing national security risks. We cannot meet today’s challenges by going it alone.