[Congressional Bills 105th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 2678 Introduced in House (IH)]







105th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 2678

  To impose certain sanctions on countries that do not prohibit child 
                                 labor.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                            October 21, 1997

 Mr. Smith of New Jersey (for himself, Mr. Hyde, Mr. Lantos, Mr. Moran 
   of Virginia, Mr. Kennedy of Massachusetts, Ms. Ros-Lehtinen, Mr. 
Sanders, Mr. Miller of California, and Mr. Faleomavaega) introduced the 
 following bill; which was referred to the Committee on International 
 Relations, and in addition to the Committee on Banking and Financial 
Services, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in 
   each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the 
                jurisdiction of the committee concerned

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
  To impose certain sanctions on countries that do not prohibit child 
                                 labor.

    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 Child Labor 
Elimination Act of 1997''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    The Congress finds the following:
            (1) Article 32 of the United Nations Convention on the 
        Rights of the Child recognizes ``the right of the child to be 
        protected from economic exploitation and from performing any 
        work that is likely to be hazardous or to interfere with the 
        child's education or to be harmful to the child's health or 
        physical, mental, spiritual, moral or social development.''.
            (2) Article 2 of Convention 138 of the International Labor 
        Organization, the Minimum Age Convention, states that the 
        minimum age for admission to employment or work ``shall not be 
        less than the age of completion of compulsory schooling and, in 
        any case, shall not be less than 15 years.''.
            (3) Convention 29 of International Labor Organization, the 
        Forced Labor Convention, which has been in effect since 1930, 
        prohibits most forms of ``forced or compulsory labor'', 
        including all forced labor by people under the age of 18.
            (4) Although it is among the most universally condemned of 
        all human rights abuses, child labor is widely practiced. The 
        International Labor Organization and the United Nations 
        Children's Fund (UNICEF) have estimated the total number of 
        child workers to be between 200,000,000 and 250,000,000. More 
        than 95 percent of those child workers live in developing 
        countries.
            (5) The International Labor Organization has estimated that 
        13.2 percent of all children 10 to 14 years of age around the 
        world were economically active in 1995. According to UNICEF, 75 
        percent of the child laborers in the 10 to 14 age group work 6 
        days a week or more, and 50 percent work 9 hours a day or more. 
        There are no reliable figures on workers under 10 years of age, 
        though their numbers are known to be significant. Reliable 
        child labor statistics are not readily available, in part 
        because many governments in the developing world are reluctant 
        to document those activities, which are often illegal under 
        domestic laws, which violate international standards, and which 
        may be perceived as a failure of internal public policy.
            (6) Notwithstanding international and domestic 
        prohibitions, many children in developing countries are forced 
        to work as debt-bonded and slave laborers in hazardous and 
        exploitative industries. According to the United Nations 
        Working Group on Contemporary Forms of Slavery and the 
        International Labor Organization, there are tens of millions of 
        child slaves in the world today. Large numbers of those slaves 
        are involved in agricultural and domestic labor, the sex 
        industry, the carpet and textile industries, and quarrying and 
        brick making.
            (7) In many countries, children lack either the legal 
        standing or the means to protect themselves from cruelty and 
        exploitation in the workplace.
            (8) The employment of children often interferes with the 
        opportunities of such children for basic education. 
        Furthermore, where it coexists with high rates of adult 
        unemployment, the use of child labor likely denies gainful 
        employment to millions of adults.
            (9) While child labor is a complex and multifaceted 
        phenomenon that is tied to issues of poverty, educational 
        opportunity, and culture, its most abusive and hazardous forms 
        are repugnant to basic human rights and must be eliminated.

SEC. 3. IDENTIFICATION OF FOREIGN COUNTRIES AND INDUSTRIES THAT USE 
              CHILD LABOR IN PRODUCING GOODS.

    (a) Identification of Countries and Industries.--The Secretary of 
Labor shall, not later than 6 months after the date of the enactment of 
this Act, and not later than the end of each 1-year period thereafter, 
identify those foreign countries that do not prohibit child labor, or 
that have laws prohibiting child labor but do not effectively enforce 
them, and those industries in such countries in which goods are 
produced or services provided with the use of child labor. The 
Secretary may revoke the identification of a country or an industry 
before the end of the 1-year period during which the identification 
would otherwise be effective, if revocation is warranted by new 
information or a change in the laws or practices of a country.
    (b) Sanctions.--The sanctions set forth in sections 4 and 5 shall 
apply with respect to those countries and industries identified under 
subsection (a) for so long as the identification is effective under 
such subsection.
    (c) Exemption.--The prohibition under section 4(a)(1)(B) on 
activities of the Export-Import Bank of the United States, the 
prohibition under section 4(a)(1)(C) on activities of the Overseas 
Private Investment Corporation, and the prohibition on multilateral 
assistance under section 4(a)(2) shall not apply with respect to a 
business entity if it is established to the satisfaction of the 
Secretary of Labor that no goods produced by that entity are products 
of child labor and that the business entity does not otherwise use 
child labor.

SEC. 4. PROHIBITION ON ASSISTANCE FOR FOREIGN COUNTRIES THAT USE CHILD 
              LABOR IN PRODUCING GOODS.

    (a) Prohibition on Assistance.--
            (1) Bilateral assistance.--
                    (A) In general.--Subject to subparagraph (C), the 
                President may not provide to a foreign country 
                identified by the Secretary of Labor under section 
                3(a)--
                            (i) any assistance under the Foreign 
                        Assistance Act of 1961, other than--
                                    (I) disaster relief assistance, 
                                including any assistance under chapter 
                                9 of part I of such Act;
                                    (II) assistance which involves the 
                                provision of food (including 
                                monetization of food) or medicine; and
                                    (III) assistance for refugees;
                            (ii) sales, or financing on any terms, 
                        under the Arms Export Control Act; or
                            (iii) the provision of agricultural 
                        commodities, other than food, under the 
                        Agricultural Trade Development and Assistance 
                        Act of 1954.
                    (B) Export-import bank.--The Export-Import Bank of 
                the United States may not give approval to the issuance 
                of any guarantee, insurance, extension of credit, or 
                participation in an extension of credit in connection 
                with the provision of any good or service to--
                            (i) the government of a foreign country 
                        identified by the Secretary of Labor under 
                        section 3(a), or an agency of such government; 
                        or
                            (ii) a business entity that is in an 
                        industry identified by the Secretary of Labor 
                        under section 3(a) in such a country.
                    (C) Overseas private investment corporation.--(i) 
                The Overseas Private Investment Corporation may not 
                issue insurance, reinsurance, or financing, or conduct 
                other activities, in connection with an industry 
                identified by the Secretary of Labor under section 
                3(a).
                    (ii) Clause (i) does not affect contracts entered 
                into by the Overseas Private Investment Corporation 
                before the date of the enactment of this Act.
            (2) Multilateral assistance.--The Secretary of the Treasury 
        shall instruct the United States Executive Director of each 
        international financial institution to use the voice and vote 
        of the United States to oppose any loan or other use of the 
        funds of such institution to or for any industry identified by 
        the Secretary of Labor under section 3(a).
    (b) Exception.--A foreign country or an industry identified by the 
Secretary of Labor under section 3(a) may receive bilateral assistance 
described in subsection (a)(1) if the President determines and 
certifies to the Congress that it is in the vital national interest of 
the United States to provide such bilateral assistance to such country 
or industry, as the case may be. The President shall include in any 
such certification--
            (1) a full and complete description of the vital national 
        interest of the United States that is placed at risk if such 
        assistance is not provided to such country or industry; and
            (2) a statement weighing the risk described in paragraph 
        (1) against the risk posed to the vital national interest of 
        the United States by the failure of such country to adopt or 
        enforce laws prohibiting child labor or by the use of child 
        labor by such industry, as the case may be.

SEC. 5. REGULATIONS.

    The President shall issue such regulations as are necessary to 
carry out this Act.

SEC. 6. UNITED STATES SUPPORT FOR DEVELOPMENTAL ALTERNATIVES FOR 
              UNDERAGE CHILD WORKERS.

    There is authorized to be appropriated to the President the sum of 
$10,000,000 for each of fiscal years 1999 through 2003 for a United 
States contribution to the International Labor Organization for the 
activities of the International Program on the Elimination of Child 
Labor.

SEC. 7. DEFINITIONS.

    As used in this Act:
            (1) Child labor.--The term ``child labor'' means the 
        performance of services in exchange for remuneration 
        (regardless of to whom paid), subsistence, goods, or services, 
        or any combination thereof, or under circumstances tantamount 
        to involuntary servitude--
                    (A) by persons who have not attained the minimum 
                age, except for--
                            (i) light work by persons no more than 2 
                        years younger than the minimum age that is not 
                        likely to harm their health or development and 
                        which does not prejudice their attendance at 
                        school, their participation in vocational 
                        orientation or training programs approved by 
                        the competent authority in the country 
                        concerned, or their capacity to benefit from 
                        the instruction received,
                            (ii) work on family and small-scale 
                        agricultural holdings which grow or produce 
                        products primarily for local consumption and do 
                        not regularly employ hired workers,
                            (iii) work done by persons at least 14 
                        years of age in schools or other training 
                        institutions for general, vocational, or 
                        technical education,
                            (iv) work done by persons at least 14 years 
                        of age as an integral part of a program of 
                        education, training, or occupational guidance 
                        carried out in accordance with conditions 
                        prescribed by the competent authority in the 
                        country concerned, and
                            (v) participation in artistic performances 
                        pursuant to permits granted in individual cases 
                        by the competent authority in the country 
                        concerned; and
                    (B) by persons under the age of 18 if such services 
                would likely jeopardize the health, safety, or moral 
                character of a young person, except for the performance 
                of such services by individuals at least 16 years of 
                age where--
                            (i) the country concerned has expressly 
                        authorized such employment by national laws or 
                        regulation;
                            (ii) the health, safety, and morals of the 
                        individuals involved are fully protected; and
                            (iii) the individuals involved have 
                        received adequate specific instruction or 
                        vocational training in the relevant branch of 
                        activity.
            (2) Minimum age.--The term ``minimum age'' means the age at 
        which children complete compulsory schooling under the national 
        laws of the country concerned, or the age of 15, whichever is 
        older, except that when a country whose economy and educational 
        facilities are insufficiently developed has specified, pursuant 
        to an international agreement, a minimum age of 14 years for a 
        period of limited and specifically identified duration, the 
        term ``minimum age'' means the age of 14 years during that 
        period.
            (3) Product of child labor.--A good shall be treated as 
        being a product of child labor if the good--
                    (A) was fabricated, assembled, or processed, in 
                whole or part,
                    (B) contains any part that was fabricated, 
                assembled, or processed, in whole or in part, or
                    (C) was grown, harvested, mined, quarried, pumped, 
                or otherwise extracted,
        with child labor.
            (4) Business entity.--The term ``business entity''--
                    (A) means any entity that produces (including 
                fabricating, assembling, processing, growing, 
                harvesting, mining, quarrying, pumping, or otherwise 
                extracting), sells, imports, exports, or contracts for 
                the production of, a good in a foreign country; and
                    (B) includes, but is not limited to, entities owned 
                or controlled in whole or in part by the government of 
                a foreign country.
            (5) Foreign country.--The term ``foreign country'' means 
        any foreign country and any possession or territory of a 
        foreign country that is administered separately for customs 
        purposes (and includes any designated zone within such country, 
        possession, or territory).
            (6) International financial institution.--The term 
        ``international financial institution'' has the meaning given 
        that term in section 1701(c)(2) of the International Financial 
        Institutions Act (22 U.S.C. 262r(c)(2)).
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