[Congressional Bills 103th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 99 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

103d CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                 S. 99

 To amend the antitrust laws to provide a cause of action for persons 
    injured in United States commerce by unfair foreign competition.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

             January 21 (legislative day, January 5), 1993

 Mr. Metzenbaum (for himself, Mr. Grassley, Mr. Simon, and Mr. Brown) 
introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the 
                       Committee on the Judiciary

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To amend the antitrust laws to provide a cause of action for persons 
    injured in United States commerce by unfair foreign competition.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``International Fair Competition Act 
of 1993''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    The Congress finds that--
            (1) all nations should enact and vigorously enforce strong 
        competition laws to benefit consumers, encourage international 
        competition, and foster growth in jobs, productivity, and 
        investment;
            (2) industries should not be allowed to take advantage of 
        weak or nonexistent competition law enforcement in their home 
        markets to compete unfairly in markets that do have strong 
        competition laws and effective enforcement;
            (3) existing United States antitrust law is inadequate to 
        prevent international competitors from unfairly exploiting 
        United States markets; it should be amended to recognize that 
        lack of competition abroad should not result in unfair 
        competition domestically; and
            (4) United States antitrust laws applicable to foreign 
        competitors that export articles to the United States market 
        should be consistent with United States antitrust laws that are 
        applicable to domestic business conduct.

SEC. 3. EXPORTATION TO THE UNITED STATES AND SALE OF ARTICLES BELOW 
              COST.

    (a) Repeal of Criminal Provision.--The second paragraph of section 
801 of the Act of September 8, 1916 (15 U.S.C. 72), is repealed.
    (b) Exportation or Sale At Less Than Average Total Cost.--Section 
801 of the Act of September 8, 1916 (15 U.S.C. 72), as amended by 
subsection (a), is amended--
            (1) by designating the first, second, and third paragraphs 
        as subsections (a), (b), and (c), respectively; and
            (2) by amending subsection (a), as designated by paragraph 
        (1), to read as follows:
    ``(a)(1) It shall be unlawful for any person that exports a product 
from a foreign country into the United States, commonly and 
systematically to export the article into, cause the article to be 
exported into, or cause the article to be sold within the United 
States, at a price that is less than the average total cost of the 
article, if--
            ``(A) the exportation or sale has the effect of--
                    ``(i) destroying or injuring commerce in the United 
                States;
                    ``(ii) preventing the establishment of a line of 
                commerce in the United States; or
                    ``(iii) substantially lessening competition or 
                tending to create a monopoly in any part of trade and 
                commerce in the article in the United States; and
            ``(B) the foreign country's market in the article--
                    ``(i) lacks effective price competition among 
                competitors; or
                    ``(ii) is substantially closed to effective 
                international competition.
    ``(2) Nothing shall prevent a defendant from rebutting a prima 
facie case made with respect to the circumstances described in 
paragraph (1) by showing that the circumstances described in paragraph 
(1)(B) were not a factor in the price charged.''.
    (c) Effective Date.--The amendment made by subsection (b) shall 
become effective on the date that is 180 days after the date of 
enactment of this Act.

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