Trump administration pushes nations to sign 'trade over aid' declaration

The Trump administration is pushing countries around the world to sign a joint declaration that calls for “trade over aid” and explicitly rejects America’s history as a leading provider of humanitarian assistance and other support to the developing world.

In a cable sent Wednesday to all U.S. embassies and consular posts, Secretary of State Marco Rubio ordered American diplomats to issue a démarche — an official call to action — to foreign governments no later than Monday that asks for their backing before the U.S. initiative is introduced at the United Nations at the end of April.

The “trade over aid” push is an opportunity, Rubio’s directive says, to use the U.N. system to “promote America First values and create business opportunities for U.S. companies.” The Washington Post reviewed a copy of his cable, which has not previously been reported.

The move comes as the Trump administration has sought to dramatically remake the global aid system, dismantling the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and pulling back funding from multilateral efforts at the United Nations, arguing that such initiatives have led to waste, fraud and dependency.

Other major donors of foreign assistance, including France, Germany and Britain, have followed the Trump administration’s lead and scaled back their efforts, leading to what some have called a “great aid recession.” Studies have suggested that such a sweeping rollback of funding could result in 9.4 million deaths by 2030.

While there have long been many criticisms of the global aid system and the dependency it can breed, skeptics have argued that the Trump administration’s approach will allow for-profit companies to exploit poorer nations.

“It’s solidifying our stance on dropping aid completely and letting companies enrich themselves on newer markets,” said one State Department official, speaking on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk with the news media.

In an emailed statement sent after this article published, Tommy Pigott, a spokesperson for the State Department, said that the United States remained “the most generous country in the history of the world” and that those who favored aid over trade supported a “corrupt NGO industrial complex.”

The State Department said in a separate statement that it would “continue to fund lifesaving health and humanitarian assistance, including by leveraging partnerships and innovation to make that assistance more efficient and effective.”

Some aspects of the “trade over aid” declaration were first reported by Devex, which published a report Tuesday disclosing that the U.S. proposal was being circulated at the U.N.

The push to encourage countries to sign on could be an indicator that other nations are skeptical of the Trump administration’s efforts.

Sam Vigersky, an international affairs fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, said the initiative may be received poorly at the U.N., particularly as the Trump administration advances other efforts — such as the Board of Peace, an international body set up by the U.S. with President Donald Trump as its chairman — interpreted in some foreign capitals as undermining the global body.

“Having been on the driving end of many démarches over my time, I would not see this being well received because it comes across as undermining the U.N.,” said Vigersky, who previously served as senior humanitarian adviser to the U.S. mission to the United Nations.

The Trump administration also has faced pushback as it seeks to negotiate with countries that receive U.S. health funding. Its “America First” approach in this space has led to accusations that the State Department is conditioning crucial funding for HIV prevention and treatment on foreign governments’ acceptance of commercial side deals related to critical minerals and other natural resources. The State Department has rejected those claims.

Daryl Grisgraber, humanitarian policy lead at Oxfam America, said that there were “constructive ways to include business in efforts to improve people’s lives and futures” but that the administration’s efforts sought to replace the global aid system rather than work with it in partnership.

“President Trump’s repeated attacks on lifesaving humanitarian aid over the last year have been deadly, leaving people in desperate need without food, medicines, water and other basic necessities crucial to their survival,” Grisgraber added.

Rubio’s cable offers talking points for U.S. diplomats to help them make the administration’s case to their counterparts, beginning with the statement that “under President Trump, America has entered a new Golden Age built on a booming economy fueled by pro-business policies: deregulation, lower taxes, and a liberated energy industry.”

It also includes the text of the full declaration. While much of it is a relatively uncontroversial promotion of free-market values, it also takes aim at the global aid system, which, it asserts, “has often created dependency, inefficiency, and corruption.”

“It was private business that developed all the world’s successful economies, not government aid,” the declaration continues.

The cable says that the U.S. mission to the U.N. will host a signing event for the declaration before the end of April. Mike Waltz, the U.S. representative to the U.N., offered a preview of the efforts during an appearance before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Tuesday.

“On the development side, we are heavily engaging the private sector,” Waltz told lawmakers. “Let’s lower barriers to capital, drive foreign investment and create jobs, not dependency, and we’re calling that trade over aid.”