“We have some of the highest environmental and labor standards in the world, and it should be the United States leading the world in resource development – not the Chinese Communist Party.” — CRES President Heather Reams
WASHINGTON – Citizens for Responsible Energy Solutions (CRES) Forum today unveiled a white paper, “How a New Trade Regime Can Counter Chinese Supply Chain Dominance and Neo-Colonialism,” authored by CRES Forum Senior Policy Fellow George David Banks. It outlines how the United States can leverage trade policy to combat the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) efforts to dominate global supply chains and reduce reliance on the Chinese economy, which is three times more carbon-intensive than the United States.
“China’s global dominance and economic aggression pose two of the most significant threats to the United States’ national and energy security,” said CRES President Heather Reams. “In this paper, Banks highlights why it is so critical we rethink our trade policy – to not only counter our reliance on China but to capitalize on American efforts to produce clean energy, manufacture goods, and reduce global emissions. We have some of the highest environmental and labor standards in the world, and it should be the United States leading the world in resource development – not the Chinese Communist Party.”
“America’s trade dominance has dwindled as China has pursued predatory trade practices and captured control of global supply chains,” said Banks. “Dependence on mineral sources controlled by the Chinese Communist Party creates not only a national security risk but also an environmental one. This research serves as a jumping off point for bipartisan policy proposals that will empower the United States to monetize its emissions performance and reduce global reliance on the CCP, and we look forward to working with U.S. lawmakers to advance legislation to do just that.”
In the paper, Banks details current economic trends, impacts of Chinese neo-colonialism in sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America and the Belt and Road Initiative – including impacts on global mineral and food supplies, and the steps needed to enact a new trade regime that accounts for environmental performance and rewards countries with lower emissions.
“In curtailing Chinese relative dominance, focus should be given to creating a new trade paradigm that holds China accountable for its poor environmental, human rights, and labor record,” writes Banks. “In this pursuit, America should also work closely with emerging markets and developing countries – many of which are suffering from stagnation and deindustrialization because of Chinese trade and investment practices – in strengthening their own political and economic development, as well as energy security.”
Banks concludes, “By leveraging U.S. and allied combined market power to monetize their environmental performance at the expense of China, which has an economy that is at least three times more carbon intensive than America’s, [policymakers] can weaken Beijing’s grip and ability to undermine the rules-based international order created by the West after the Second World War.”
Click here to read the full white paper.
CRES recently endorsed the bipartisan Providing Reliable, Objective, Verifiable Emissions Intensity and Transparency (PROVE IT) Act, introduced by Senator Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.), which would create certainty that the U.S. economy is more carbon-efficient than its competitors, including China and Russia. Read more about how a U.S. trade strategy can combat Chinese economic aggression in an op-ed by Senator Cramer here.
Produced by members of the Policy Fellowship program which launched in 2021, CRES Forum white papers examine the most critical climate and clean energy issues. Past installments tackled topics including: the climate benefits of using U.S. fossil fuels, critical minerals and national security, American energy innovation, manufacturing and industrial competitiveness, the power sector and consumer costs, permitting modernization and reform, agriculture and natural solutions, and transportation.