LUSAKA, May 4 (Reuters) – Zambia’s government said on Monday that it opposed a U.S. attempt to tie health funding to access to critical minerals, giving details for the first time about why negotiations with Washington over two proposed agreements have stalled.
Zambia’s Foreign Minister Mulambo Haimbe said the United States had offered support of up to $2 billion over the next five years in a proposed health agreement, but that some of the terms regarding data sharing would violate Zambians’ right to privacy.
Separately, he said Zambia had objections to the content of a proposed critical minerals agreement.
“A further concern… is the coupling of the proposed agreements and frameworks to one another such that the conclusion of the critical minerals agreement is made conditional to the conclusion of the Health MOU,” Haimbe said in a statement.
“The Zambian Government has been consistent that the agreements must be considered separately on their respective merits,” he added.
He did not specify what health data the U.S. was asking for.
Regarding the critical minerals agreement, he said Zambia was reluctant to accept the terms due to an insistence on preferential treatment for U.S. companies.
The U.S. State Department has said that it does not disclose details of bilateral negotiations.
Health advocates had warned that the proposed health deal linked the money to mining access and brought data-sharing risks, but Zambia’s government previously said only that parts of it were not aligned with the country’s interests.
A number of African nations have signed memorandums of understanding which represent the Trump administration’s new approach to foreign aid. Ghana and Zimbabwe have rejected them over data sharing demands.
The statement from Haimbe was issued in response to criticism from outgoing U.S. ambassador Michael Gonzales, who accused Zambia of failing to engage on the health funding offer, something which Haimbe denied.
(Reporting by Chris Mfula and Nellie Peyton; Editing by Kirsten Donovan)
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