By Humeyra Pamuk
WASHINGTON, April 16 (Reuters) - President Donald Trump's administration has instructed U.S. diplomats worldwide to lobby countries to back a "trade over aid" declaration at the United Nations, part of a broader effort to overhaul how Washington spends billions of dollars in foreign assistance, according to a cable reviewed by Reuters.
In an April 15 dated cable, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio ordered diplomats to deliver the message at the highest appropriate level in their respective countries and receive signatures by April 20 for the declaration.
"This initiative is an opportunity for USUN to use the U.N. system to prompt America First values and create business opportunities for U.S. companies," the cable said, referring to the U.S. Mission to the United Nations.
The document was first reported by the Washington Post.
The message to diplomats is in line with a broader shift in U.S. foreign policy under Trump away from using aid as a tool for extending U.S. influence and toward a harder-edged focus on what the administration sees as core U.S. interests.
Days after assuming office, Trump began upending the decades-old system of how the U.S. distributes billions of dollars worth of life-saving and developmental aid.
Describing the system as rife with "waste and abuse", the administration moved to freeze and then cut programs that it said did not align with Trump's "America First" values, jeopardizing the delivery of life-saving food and medical aid and severely disrupting global humanitarian relief efforts.
It said the old system of distributing aid created dependencies and did not further U.S. interests.
"The idea that trade and free market capitalism is the surest path to prosperity has been proven by the facts and by history," State Department deputy spokesperson Tommy Pigott said.
"The U.S. remains the most generous country in the history of the world, but those arguing for 'aid not trade' are really arguing for lining the pockets of a corrupt NGO industrial complex."
ALTERNATIVE APPROACH
Instead, the Trump administration has advocated an alternative model emphasizing "mutually profitable business relationships" between the private sectors of countries while encouraging them to pursue pro-business reforms, an approach that occasionally drew ire from the humanitarian sector.
"There’s no American who looks at a picture of a starving child and sees an opportunity for companies to enrich themselves," said Eric Pelofsky, a vice president at the Rockfeller Foundation who previously served at the White House.
"That’s because Americans have historically run to the fire to help rather than looking for ways to sell fire hoses to those suffering. This approach betrays America’s traditions, values, and national security interests—and it makes us less safe.”
The cable has provided U.S. diplomats with talking points to argue for the declaration, for which it said there will be a launch event at the end of April. The declaration was also attached in full text to the cable.
Speaking on Wednesday about U.N. reform, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz touched upon the initiative.
"On the development side, we are heavily engaging the private sector. Let’s lower barriers to capital, drive foreign investment, and create jobs, not dependency, and we’re calling that Trade Over Aid," he said.
(Reporting by Humeyra Pamuk, additional reporting by Andrea Shalal; Editing by Don Durfee, William Maclean)
