Covid-19: US senators introduce legislation to impose sanctions on China

Washington, May 13

A group of nine influential US senators has introduced a legislation in Congress seeking to authorise the President to impose sanctions on China if it fails to cooperate and provide a full accounting of the events leading up to the outbreak of the coronavirus.

The COVID-19 Accountability Act, authored by Senator Lindsay Graham and co-sponsored by eight others, was introduced in the Senate — the upper chamber of Congress — on Tuesday.

It mandates the President to make a certification to Congress within 60 days that China has provided a full and complete accounting to any COVID-19 investigation led by the US, its allies or the UN affiliates such as the World Health Organization 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.

Without the certification, the President would be authorised to impose a range of sanctions such as asset freezes, travel bans, visa revocations, restricting United States financial institutions from making loans or underwriting to Chinese businesses and prohibiting Chinese firms from being listed on American stock exchanges. — PTI