[Congressional Bills 104th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 2833 Introduced in House (IH)]

  1st Session
                                H. R. 2833

To amend the Perishable Agricultural Commodities Act, 1930, to require 
that perishable agricultural products be labeled or marked as to their 
                           country of origin.


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                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                           December 22, 1995

  Ms. Kaptur (for herself and Mrs. Thurman) introduced the following 
        bill; which was referred to the Committee on Agriculture

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To amend the Perishable Agricultural Commodities Act, 1930, to require 
that perishable agricultural products be labeled or marked as to their 
                           country of origin.

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

SECTION 1. COUNTRY OF ORIGIN LABELING OF PERISHABLE AGRICULTURAL 
              COMMODITIES.

    (a) Labeling Required.--Section 14 of the Perishable Agricultural 
Commodities Act, 1930 (7 U.S.C. 499n), is amended by adding at the end 
the following new subsection:
    ``(c) Country of Origin Labeling.--(1) The Secretary shall carry 
out a nationwide program to require perishable agricultural commodities 
(or the bins, display cases, or similar containers holding such 
perishable agricultural commodities) to be labeled, marked, or 
otherwise clearly identified at the retail level as to their country of 
origin.
    ``(2) The program shall apply to imported and domestic perishable 
agricultural commodities, including perishable agricultural commodities 
that are exempted, under section 304(a)(3)(J) of the Tariff Act of 1930 
(19 U.S.C. 1304(a)(3)(J)), from the country of origin marking 
requirements of that Act.''.
    (b) Penalties.--Subsection (b) of such section is amended--
            (1) by inserting ``or country of origin label required'' 
        after ``certificate issued''; and
            (2) by inserting ``or label'' after ``certificate'' the 
        last place it appears.
    (c) Conforming Amendment.--Such section is further amended by 
striking ``Sec. 14'' and inserting the following:

``SEC. 14. INSPECTION AND LABELING OF PERISHABLE AGRICULTURAL 
              COMMODITIES.''.

    (d) Application of Amendments.--The amendments made by this section 
shall apply with respect to perishable agricultural commodities 
marketed on or after one year after the date of the enactment of this 
Act.
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