WASHINGTON: Developing nations depending greatly on American foreign aid for their economic development programmes better start looking for alternate sources of assistance as well as review their economic philosophies, according to informed sources here. For, the prospects are that US aid will continue to shrink, and according to the “New York Times” “there may soon be no foreign aid programme to cut back” if the Congress maintains its present anti-aid mood.

During the current fiscal year the US is having its lowest foreign aid in recent history. Last year the Congress cut nearly half a billion from what President Johnson had asked for passing an Aid Bill of 2.94 billion dollars, a third of which was for military assistance. Thanks to considerable sums saved on aid to India and Pakistan cut off during the war the Administration managed to see through a reasonable aid programme this fiscal year.

The President is expected to ask for a little over three billion dollars in foreign aid for the next fiscal year. It is certain the Congress, much more conservative than the last one, will use its axe freely on foreign aid, drastically slashing the White House aid request.

Not only in the Congress but throughout the country there is a growing feeling that American foreign aid is not serving the nation’s interests except in a few countries. Americans like quick and discernible returns for their money. The apparent failure of US foreign policy in major areas of the world has triggered a backlash against giving dollars away to “ungrateful foreigners”.

Pakistan, for instance, is unlikely to receive more than 200 million dollars annually from the US during the remaining years of the Third Plan. Considering the Plan has doubled compared to the Second Five-Year Plan during which Pakistan received on an average 220 million dollars a year US aid to Pakistan will register a drastic cut during the Third Plan. This year American aid may not go beyond the promised 140 million dollars for non-project aid.

Published in Dawn, January 20th, 2017