Washington: Senator Lindsay Grahan, along with 8 other senators, has introduced legislation that places the power in Trump’s hands to sanction China, in case a full accounting of the events resulting in the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic isn’t provided by them.
The Covid-19 Accountability Act, authored by Senator Lindsay Graham and co-sponsored by eight others, was proposed and passed in the Senate, the upper chamber of Congress, on Tuesday.
It decrees the President of the United States of America to make a certification to Congress within 60 days that China has provided a complete accounting to any Covid-19 investigation led by the US, its allies or the UN affiliates such as the World Health Organisation and has closed all operating wet markets that have the potential to expose humans to health risks through the introduction of zoonotic disease into the human population.
“I will certainly look at it (the legislation), they built to sanction China so I will certainly take a look at it. I have not seen it yet,” Trump told reporters on Wednesday.
“The Chinese Communist Party must be held accountable for the detrimental role they played in this pandemic,” said Senator Jim Inhofe, one of the sponsors of the COVID-19 Accountability Act. “Their outright deception of the origin and spread of the virus cost the world valuable time and lives as it began to spread,” he added in his statement.
The legislation gives Trump a 60 days period to update Congress after verifying that China has given a full accounting on the COVID-19 outbreak to an investigation led by either the United States and its allies or a body of United Nations, like the World Health Organization.
Trump is also told to confirm that China has shut its wet markets, posing as the current highest risk for the further spread of the deadly virus and released Hong Kong activists arrested in post-COVID-19 crackdowns.
If China fails or disagrees to do so, Trump is authorized under the Act to press sanctions including asset freezes, travel bans and visa revocations, as well as restricting Chinese businesses’ access to US bank financing and capital markets and ceasing Chinese firms to appear on American stock market.
“China refuses to allow the international community to go into the Wuhan lab to investigate,” said Senator Lindsey Graham, author of the bill. “They refuse to allow investigators to study how this outbreak started. I’m convinced China will never cooperate with a serious investigation unless they are made to do so.”
The fatal virus has till now claimed close to 85000 lives, infected about 1.42 million in the US, and is endangering the lives of everyone in the world.
