Thwarting Regional Adversary Investments Now Act
Key claim: The TRAIN Act would require USAID to train officials of non-adversarial South and Central Asian countries to analyze and mitigate legal and financial risks of accepting investment or lending from regional foreign adversaries.
Abstract
(HR5632 · 118th Congress) Thwarting Regional Adversary Investments Now Act or the TRAIN Act This bill requires the U.S. Agency for International Development to make training available to appropriate government officials of non-adversarial countries in South and Central Asia on analyzing, assessing, and mitigating any legal or financial risk of accepting investment or lending from a foreign adversary that is in the region. Latest action (2023-09-21): Referred to the House Committee on Foreign Affairs.
Why this matters
The TRAIN Act extends U.S. economic statecraft into capacity-building, using USAID to help South and Central Asian governments screen adversary-backed investment and lending rather than imposing new import, export, or sanctions controls. For trade watchers, it signals a soft-power complement to CFIUS-style screening abroad, potentially shaping which countries accept Chinese or Russian financing and thereby influencing regional supply chains and infrastructure procurement patterns.