WASHINGTON —
A U.S. senator from a U.S. farm state introduced a bill this week that would bar foreign adversaries such as China from buying or investing in U.S. farmland and agribusiness. The move comes after a Chinese company’s acquisition of land in North Dakota sparked national security concerns.
The bill introduced Wednesday (August 17) by Republican Senator Mike Rounds of South Dakota calls for blacklisting China, Russia, Iran and North Korea, barring individuals and entities from these countries from investing, purchasing Or acquire land or business involving U.S. agriculture.
“Protecting U.S. farmland is critical to maintaining our national security,” Lownds, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said in a statement.
He said he was shocked by China’s Fufeng Group’s recent acquisition of land near a US Air Force base in North Dakota.
“This acquisition could threaten our national security because it allows the Chinese Communist Party to closely monitor the movements and communications of a very important military facility,” Lowndes said.
China’s Fufeng Group plans to spend $700 million to buy land in Grand Forks, North Dakota, neighboring Senator Lowndes, to build a corn-processing plant, but the project has been controversial because of its proximity to a U.S. Air Force base. Some opponents argue that the Chinese company’s program could be used in espionage programs.
Late last month, North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum called on the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) to expedite consideration of the acquisition to ensure the project does not harm national security.
The city council in Grand Forks gave preliminary approval to Fufeng Group’s plan to build a corn-processing plant in February. Local officials say it is the largest private investment in the community’s history. Gov. Bergham had hailed the project at the time as a “tremendous opportunity for producers and workers in Grand Forks and our entire state.”
However, the project has drawn growing skepticism and opposition.
During July, two U.S. senators, John Hoeven and Kevin Cramer from North Dakota, and Senator Marco Rubio from Florida Ask the federal government to review the land acquisition. They are all Republicans. Following this, Governor Bergham formally asked CFIUS to expedite its deliberations.
“As I travel across South Dakota, I hear from many farmers and ranchers that they are concerned about foreign adversaries owning U.S. farmland,” Senator Lownds, a neighboring state, said in a statement Wednesday.
“It’s time to stop this and act,” he said. “This bill would protect certain U.S. interests by blacklisting foreign adversaries from purchasing land or businesses involving agriculture.”
The bill, called the Promoting Agriculture Safeguards and Security Act (PASS), requires the agricultural sector to be included in the Defense Production Act, in addition to blacklisting countries such as China and Russia. Add the Secretary of Agriculture to CFIUS, an interagency committee that considers whether foreign investment poses a national security risk.
The bill allows the president to waive the prohibited transactions on a case-by-case basis, but would need to report to Congress why doing so is critical to U.S. national security interests.
Chinese owners now control less than 1 percent of all foreign-owned farmland in the United States, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Canada holds the most U.S. agricultural land, followed by the Netherlands with 29% and 14%, respectively.
However, the rapid growth of China’s overseas agricultural investment in recent years has aroused the alarm of some members of the US Congress. A 2018 U.S. Department of Agriculture survey report shows that since 2009, China’s overseas agricultural investment has grown by more than 10 times.
Last month, Rep. Elise Stefanik, a Republican from New York, introduced the House version of the PASS bill.
In May, Dan Newhouse, a Republican from Washington state, introduced a bill that would bar Chinese companies from buying U.S. agricultural land. The House Appropriations Committee voted in June to include the relevant provisions proposed by Congressman Newhouse in an amendment to the appropriations bill for the Department of Agriculture and other related agencies, prohibiting China, Russia, Iran and North Korea from buying U.S. farmland.
The House Appropriations Committee also included Newhouse’s proposal in the appropriations bill last year , but the clause was eventually amended to require the Department of Agriculture to submit a report on the issue.
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