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USAID closure: The ‘only winners’ are China and Russia

Media Contact

Damien Sharp

Tech mogul Elon Musk announced that he and President Donald Trump are in the process of shutting down the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).

Chris Barrett, professor of public policy and economics at Cornell University, studies poverty, food insecurity and global food markets. He says China and Russia will be the only winners in USAID’s closure.


Christopher Barrett

Professor of Applied Economics and Policy

“Closure of USAID – even sustained, significant reductions of its operations – will be a major global calamity. For more than 60 years, USAID has championed American interests around the world. It has provided the single largest share of humanitarian response to disasters worldwide. It was a key investor in new agricultural and health technologies that have improved livelihoods around the world and built markets for U.S. businesses. It sponsored foreign students whose U.S. training equipped them to lead in their home countries as friends of the US and our allies.

“USAID is the main repository of technical expertise on food security, health, humanitarian logistics and a range of other issues in most of the world’s countries. The U.S. government and U.S. businesses, charities and citizens will be seriously handicapped in our interactions with the rest of the world without USAID data, expertise, and funding. The only winners from closing USAID will be China and Russia as they seek to secure access to vital resources abroad and build alliances that are not in U.S. national interests.”

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