Jeff Merkley

I take your point on border adjustment.

I could not help but recall an article I had read about how China is the major financer of new coal plants around the world.

I do think I would agree with Ms. Lee that there is more that the WTO can do to both reduce all tariffs on anything that would contribute in terms of renewable energy types of goods.

I think it is absolutely critical to their agendas going forward.

Do you share the viewpoint from the administration's report last Friday that carbon pollution is a significant world problem and we need to act quickly to address it, a point that was also made last month by the IPCC report that was…

I think it would be a very helpful thing.

I drafted legislation that I think would get us there. It is S. 2757, the National Economic Security Strategy Act of 2018.

U.S. leadership through longstanding programs like PEPFAR is doing vital work measured in lives saved, and they deserve sustained support.

A key priority for U.S. policy should be to effect a change in behavior by bringing China into the norms and disciplines of other major creditor countries.

A lengthy answer avoiding the core point of the question, but thank you.

The Trump administration released its National Climate Assessment that got a lot of attention, despite being released the day after Thanksgiving.

The world community is pretty much in line now recognizing that China has been taking advantage of the system.

Should we still be sending development loans to China?

Should we push for a policy in the IMF and World Bank that no loan, no grant project will go to any country that does not have complete transparency for its international borrowing?

It seems to me this is a case where it is a deliberate strategy to create leverage.

One of the reasons it was such a problem was corruption.

So Senator Young and I both referred to this Chinese debt trap strategy, and I am just going to restate it simply and see if you all concur that this is their strategy or if we are perhaps mischaracterizing the situation.

Thank you both very much.

Development banks employ policies aligned with American laws and American values to safeguard the environment and people.

These efforts are particularly relevant in a world where so many countries seek financing from China, whose loans come with lax to nonexistent labor and environmental standards.

I expect we will hear from our State and Treasury Department witnesses about the value of U.S. contributions to the IMF and the World Bank.

We must force the administration to quit partnering in this decimation of civilian infrastructure and bombings in Yemen.

I think there very well might be. There were 44 votes for the Senators Lee, Murphy provision that went before the Senate to say that we should stop providing fuel and support for their attacks on Yemen.

Those individuals who we find out were involved should be subjected to the Global Magnitsky Act, which that has a limited amount of power, but it does say we will freeze your assets.

We should stand up for human rights everywhere in the world, and certainly such a murder is unacceptable if indeed the murder happened.