Experts Available: Today’s Hearing on Trump Deals with Democratic Republic of the Congo and Critical Minerals
WASHINGTON, D.C. – As the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Africa holds a hearing on Trump’s “Washington Accords” with the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Rwanda, Friends of the Congo, Public Citizen, Earthworks and the United Methodist Church distributed a memorandum to Subcommittee members that explains implications of a key aspect of those accords: the U.S.-DRC Strategic Partnership Agreement (SPA).
Trump claims to have brought peace to the DRC, but the violence continues unabated. Meanwhile, the far-reaching SPA fundamentally reshapes who controls access to the DRC’s vast mineral resources and on whose terms. The deal requires the DRC to essentially forfeit its sovereignty over its mineral deposits and give U.S. companies the “right of first offer” to mining sites, even over Congolese investors.
Maurice Carney, Executive Director at Friends of the Congo (moe@friendsofthecongo.org), and Melinda St. Louis, Director of Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch (mstlouis@citizen.org), are available for comment.