[Congressional Bills 104th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 3421 Introduced in House (IH)]







104th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 3421

 To require the imposition of increased tariffs on certain products of 
the People's Republic of China until the President certifies that that 
    country is complying with its agreement with the United States 
         regarding protection of intellectual property rights.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                              May 8, 1996

Ms. Pelosi (for herself, Mr. Bono, Mr. Gephardt, Mr. Cox of California, 
    Mr. Bonior, Mr. Solomon, Mr. Rangel, Mr. Gilman, Mr. Hyde, Mr. 
Scarborough, Mr. Rohrabacher, Mr. Abercrombie, Mr. Barton of Texas, Mr. 
Berman, Mr. Borski, Mr. Brown of Ohio, Mr. Bryant of Texas, Mr. Cardin, 
   Mr. DeFazio, Ms. DeLauro, Mr. Dellums, Mr. Dornan, Mr. Doyle, Mr. 
Durbin, Mr. Ehrlich, Ms. Eshoo, Mr. Evans, Mr. Farr of California, Mr. 
 Foglietta, Mr. Frank of Massachusetts, Mr. Frost, Mr. Gejdenson, Mr. 
Gonzalez, Mr. Gordon, Mr. Hastings of Florida, Mr. Hinchey, Mr. Hobson, 
  Ms. Jackson-Lee of Texas, Mr. Kanjorski, Ms. Kaptur, Mr. King, Mr. 
  Klink, Mr. Lantos, Mr. Levin, Mr. Lewis of Georgia, Mr. Markey, Mr. 
Mascara, Ms. McKinney, Mrs. Meek of Florida, Mr. Miller of California, 
 Mrs. Mink of Hawaii, Mr. Murtha, Mr. Nadler, Mr. Obey, Mr. Olver, Mr. 
 Porter, Mr. Richardson, Mr. Rose, Mr. Rush, Mr. Sanders, Mr. Schiff, 
Mrs. Schroeder, Mr. Sensenbrenner, Mr. Smith of New Jersey, Mr. Stark, 
  Mrs. Thurman, Mr. Waxman, Mr. Wolf, and Ms. Woolsey) introduced the 
 following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Ways and Means

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To require the imposition of increased tariffs on certain products of 
the People's Republic of China until the President certifies that that 
    country is complying with its agreement with the United States 
         regarding protection of intellectual property rights.

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

SECTION 1. FINDINGS.

    The Congress makes the following findings:
            (1) Violations by the People's Republic of China of United 
        States intellectual property rights, including with respect to 
        music, videos, books, and software is a serious problem and a 
        threat to the United States economy and United States jobs.
            (2) Repeated efforts by the United States Government, 
        starting in 1991, to encourage the Chinese Government to halt 
        this piracy have not succeeded. Since these efforts started, 
        estimated losses to the United States economy from the piracy 
        increased to $2,300,000,000 in 1995.
            (3) On March 11, 1995, the Chinese Government signed an 
        agreement with the United States pledging to implement an 
        action plan for effective protection and enforcement of 
        intellectual property rights and to remove various import and 
        investment barriers to persons who rely on intellectual 
        property protection. In this agreement, the Chinese Government 
        agreed to--
                    (A) take immediate steps to stem the piracy in the 
                People's Republic of China of intellectual property 
                rights;
                    (B) establish mechanisms to ensure long-term 
                enforcement of protecting intellectual property rights; 
                and
                    (C) provide greater market access to United States 
                products protected by intellectual property rights.
            (4) One year after the agreement was signed, counterfeiting 
        by Chinese enterprises of copyrighted material continues to 
        grow, the Chinese Government has failed to control massive 
        production and export of pirated materials, and there has been 
        no increase in market access for United States products 
        protected by intellectual property rights.

SEC. 2. IMPOSITION OF TARIFFS ON CERTAIN GOODS.

    (a) Imposition of Tariffs.--
            (1) Additional tariffs.--Notwithstanding any other 
        provision of law, effective 15 days after the date of the 
        enactment of this Act, the President shall impose tariffs, in 
        addition to those already in effect as of such date of 
        enactment, on goods that are the growth, product, or 
        manufacture of the People's Republic of China, that the 
        President determines would compensate for the losses to the 
        United States economy resulting from the acts, policies, and 
        practices of the Chinese Government described in paragraph (2).
            (2) Acts, policies, and practices.--The acts, policies, and 
        practices referred to in paragraph (1) are--
                    (A) those acts, policies, and practices of the 
                Chinese Government with respect to the enforcement of 
                intellectual property rights and the provision market 
                access to persons who rely on intellectual property 
                protection, that are referred to in the determination 
                of the United States Trade Representative of February 
                7, 1995, that was published in the Federal Register 
                (volume 60, no. 25, pp. 7230-7234); and
                    (B) any other acts, policies, and practices of the 
                Chinese Government with respect to the enforcement of 
                intellectual property rights and the provision market 
                access to persons who rely on intellectual property 
                protection, in violation of the agreement referred to 
                in section 1(3) or any other agreement with the United 
                States.
    (b) Duration of Tariffs.--The tariffs imposed under subsection 
(a)(1) shall apply until the conditions set forth in section 3 are met.
    (c) Criteria For Tariffs.--The President shall transmit in writing 
to the Congress, not later than 15 days after the date of the enactment 
of this Act, the criteria used to determine the tariffs, and the goods 
on which the tariffs are imposed, under subsection (a)(1).

SEC. 3. CONDITIONS.

    The conditions referred to in section 2(b) are the following:
            (1) The President certifies to the Congress that the 
        Government of the People's Republic of China is complying with 
        all the terms of the agreement referred to in section 1(3).
            (2) Thirty days have elapsed since the submission of the 
        certification and a law has not been enacted stating in 
        substance that the Congress disapproves the certification.
                                 <all>