Questions
for the record submitted to Assistant Secretary Thomas Shannon by Members of
the House Committee on Foreign Relations after hearing held March 5, 2008,
“With Castro Stepping Down, What is Next for Cuba and the Western Hemisphere?”
(Received after printing of transcript)
Question (#1):
The Bush Administration failed to
come out with a clear inter-agency position on the extension of ATPDEA this
year. Are you prepared to come out with
a clear inter-agency position on whether or not ATPDEA should be extended to
each of the four countries when an extension is once again needed in December of
this year? What would that position be?
Answer:
ATPDEA
has consistently enjoyed strong bipartisan support in the Congress and the
Administration. In addition to
its role in creating thousands of licit jobs, boosting investor confidence and improving
economic stability in the Andean countries, ATPDEA was instrumental in
encouraging
We
look forward to working with the Congress on shaping an appropriate preference
program for the Andean countries, depending on implementation of the Peru FTA,
Congressional deliberations on the Colombia FTA and our shared judgment of
Question (#2):
Given
the attacks on USAID’s democracy assistance program and the problems these
attacks have created for our Embassy in
Answer:
Democracy promotion remains one of our top priorities in
Consistent with the OAS Inter American Democratic Charter,
our assistance supports institution building at all levels of government,
democratic checks and balances, strengthening civil society, democratic
participation, and peaceful resolution of conflict.
Our assistance programs are transparent. All program information is available to the
Government of Bolivia and the Bolivian people on the USAID website. USAID provides non-partisan assistance to
more municipalities that are led by ruling MAS party mayors than by any other
party. Our democracy programs aim to
strengthen governance in
Because of ongoing
challenges, now is the time to ramp up
Questions (#3 & #4):
Given this shift, is it accurate to say that
there is a $116 million increase in development assistance for the
If there is an increase, could you please
give us a dollar figure on how much of a bump we are actually seeing in
development assistance excluding the shift of alternative development spending
from the ESF into the DA account?
Answer:
The
President’s FY 2009 foreign assistance request for the
Question (#5):
I am concerned that we are not making
adequate progress implementing the U.S.-Brazil Biofuels agreement more than one
year after its signing. No fields have
yet been opened for additional biofuels cultivation. The most impoverished of the four countries
benefiting from the MOU,
Answer:
Since
signing the U.S.-Brazil Biofuels MOU in March 2007, our intention was to
produce concrete action on the ground during our first year of cooperation with
To
advance regional cooperation in initial target countries -- the Dominican
Republic, El Salvador, Haiti, and St. Kitts and Nevis -- technical consultants
from Winrock International (Winrock)
and the Getulio Vargas Foundation conducted intensive
field work to assess each country’s potential to develop local biofuels
industries. Winrock
finalized these assessments in March 2008, and in its report, identified 30
potential technical assistance projects and feasibility studies across the four
countries to help each develop local biofuels industries. We confirmed the support of each target
country’s government for the 30 identified projects. Among them, we prioritized eight
opportunities – two per country – and have begun committing funding for them. We, and our donor partners, will support as
many projects as possible, subject to available funding.
The
technical assistance varies based on the country assessments. Generally, in
In
addition to our work with governments to create an enabling environment for
biofuels, we will support feasibility studies aimed at attracting private
sector investment in the four countries.
Feasibility studies determine the commercial viability of projects and
inform private sector investment decisions on whether to proceed with the
project. By supporting feasibility
studies, it is our goal to stimulate private sector activity in biofuels
industries so that locally-grown biofuels can help meet local energy demands,
create jobs, and stimulate rural economic activity. The speed at which projects are implemented
that produce biofuels, therefore, will depend on the private sector’s
willingness to invest in each country, which will be determined by the target
country governments efforts to create an adequate legal and regulatory
framework to attract investment, among other factors.
Winrock
found that the Government of Haiti (GOH) is in the early stages of biofuels
policy formulation and that the private sector is highly engaged. We were pleased to see that Winrock identified 15 biofuels projects in
The
production of jatropha in
In
addition to our work to develop new markets for biofuels production and
consumption in small and vulnerable economies, the
Finally,
the
To
review progress of our efforts implementing the MOU, on March 3, 2008, the
U.S.-Brazil Biofuels Steering Group and Advisory Board met in