Senators Ask State Department to Protect US Investment in Honduras
Sen. Bill Hagerty, R-Tenn., and Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md., recently asked the State Department to ask Honduras to honor guarantees for U.S. investments in Honduran Economic Development and Employment Zones (ZEDEs), which were created under the Dominican Republic-Central America-U.S. Free Trade Agreement, or CAFTA-DR.
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“As the growing risks posed by global conflict and instability are driving strategic industries to relocate closer to the United States and neighboring nations, nearshoring opportunities increasingly abound for Honduras and other countries in Central America. Nearshoring will de-risk supply chains for U.S. firms. Investments in nearshoring also will help alleviate the poverty that encourages illegal migration to the United States and to provide new employment opportunities for talented young Hondurans. That said, we are gravely concerned that the Honduran government is advancing policies and actions that are inconsistent with this promising future,” they wrote in a letter Oct. 13.
They did not point to any expropriation of U.S. property in Honduras, but said that the "tone and content of Honduran President Xiomara Castro’s speech before the United Nations General Assembly" was concerning.