[Congressional Bills 106th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 5564 Introduced in House (IH)]







106th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 5564

To prohibit the importation of diamonds unless the countries exporting 
  the diamonds to the United States have in place certain controls to 
       verify the source of the diamonds, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                            October 26, 2000

 Mr. Hall of Ohio (for himself, Mr. Wolf, and Ms. McKinney) introduced 
  the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Ways and 
                                 Means

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To prohibit the importation of diamonds unless the countries exporting 
  the diamonds to the United States have in place certain controls to 
       verify the source of the diamonds, and for other purposes.

    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 ``Conflict Diamonds Elimination Act of 
2000''.

SEC. 2. RESTRICTIONS ON IMPORTATION OF DIAMONDS.

    (a) Restrictions.--Diamonds may not be imported into the United 
States unless the country exporting the diamonds to the United States 
is either implementing a system of controls on the export and import of 
rough diamonds or is a signatory to an international agreement, or a 
participant in an international arrangement, that establishes a system 
of controls on the export and import of rough diamonds. Such a system 
of controls may include the following:
            (1)(A) The diamonds, when exported from the country in 
        which they were mined, were sealed in a secure container by 
        appropriate government officials of that country.
            (B) The sealed container includes a government document 
        that certifies the country as the country of origin of the 
        diamonds and includes a unique export registration number for 
        the diamonds and the total carat weight of the diamonds.
            (C) Appropriate government officials have entered into a 
        database controlled by the government the export registration 
        number for the diamonds and the total carat weight of the 
        diamonds.
            (2) Any country importing the diamonds prior to polishing 
        or other processing--
                    (A) permits importation of the diamonds only in a 
                container described in paragraph (1); and
                    (B) verifies, by electronic or other reliable means 
                of verification, the information set forth in the 
                export document included in the sealed container in 
                which the diamonds were shipped.
    (b) Monitoring.--The President shall ensure that the system of 
controls described in subsection (a) is either monitored by an 
appropriate agency of the United States or, in the case of a system of 
controls established by an international agreement or arrangement, by 
an organization specified in the agreement or arrangement.

SEC. 3. ANNUAL REPORT.

    The President shall transmit to the Congress, not later than 
September 30th of each year, a report describing and evaluating the 
system of controls on trade in diamonds described in section 2(a) and 
identifying those countries that are implementing such controls.

SEC. 4. SENSE OF CONGRESS.

    It is the sense of the Congress that the President should take the 
necessary steps to negotiate an international agreement or arrangement 
to eliminate the trade in diamonds used to support conflict in the 
regions in which the diamonds are mined.

SEC. 5. EFFECTIVE DATE AND WAIVERS.

    (a) In General.--Except as provided in subsection (b), this Act 
shall take effect 6 months after the date of the enactment of this Act.
    (b) Delay in Effective Date.--If, not later than the end of the 6-
month period described in subsection (a), the President--
            (1) determines that a system of controls on the export and 
        import of rough diamonds has not been implemented by exporting 
        countries (as described in section 2(a)), and that an 
        international agreement or arrangement that establishes a 
        system of controls on the export and import of rough diamonds 
        (as described in section 2(a)) has not been concluded, and
            (2) transmits that determination to the Congress, together 
        with a description of the progress in the implementation of 
        such a system by exporting countries and in concluding such an 
        agreement or arrangement,
then this Act shall take effect 1 year after the date of the enactment 
of this Act.
    (c) Waiver Authority.--The President may waive the applicability of 
this Act with respect to a country for periods of not more than 6 
months each if the President, before granting each waiver--
            (1) determines that the country is making significant 
        progress toward concluding an international agreement or 
        arrangement establishing, or is otherwise implementing, a 
        system of controls on the export and import of rough diamonds 
        described in section 2(a)); and
            (2) transmits that determination, with the reasons 
        therefor, to the Congress.
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