[Congressional Bills 106th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 3216 Introduced in Senate (IS)]







106th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                S. 3216

 To provide for review in the Court of International Trade of certain 
determinations of binational panels under the North American Free Trade 
                               Agreement.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

            October 18 (legislative day, September 22), 2000

 Mr. Craig (for himself and Mr. Baucus) introduced the following bill; 
     which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To provide for review in the Court of International Trade of certain 
determinations of binational panels under the North American Free Trade 
                               Agreement.

    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 ``Integrity of the United States 
Courts Act of 2000''.

SEC. 2. JUDICIAL REVIEW OF BINATIONAL PANEL DECISIONS.

    (a) In General.--Subtitle A of title IV of the North American Free 
Trade Agreement Implementation Act (19 U.S.C. 3431 et seq.) is amended 
by inserting after section 404 the following new section:

``SEC. 404A. REVIEW OF BINATIONAL PANEL DETERMINATIONS.

    ``(a) Basis for Review in Court of International Trade.--
            ``(1) In general.--If, within 30 days after publication in 
        the Federal Register of notice that a binational panel has 
        issued a determination following a review under article 1904 of 
        a decision of a competent investigating authority in the United 
        States, a party or person within the meaning of paragraph 5 of 
        article 1904 alleges that--
                    ``(A)(i) the determination of the panel was based 
                on a misinterpretation of United States law;
                    ``(ii) a member of a panel was guilty of a gross 
                misconduct, bias, or a serious conflict of interest, or 
                otherwise materially violated the rules of conduct,
                    ``(iii) the panel seriously departed from a 
                fundamental rule of procedure, or
                    ``(iv) the panel manifestly exceeded its powers, 
                authority, or jurisdiction set out in article 1904, as 
                in failing to apply the appropriate standard of review, 
                and
                    ``(B) any of the actions described in subparagraph 
                (A) has materially affected the panel's decision and 
                threatens the integrity of the binational panel review 
                process,
        then such party or person may file an appeal with the United 
        States Court of International Trade, seeking review of the 
        binational panel determination, pursuant to section 516A of the 
        Tariff Act of 1930.
            ``(2) Review in court of international trade where 
        binational panel does not act.--If a request for a panel review 
        has been made under article 1904 and a panel is not convened 
        within 315 days of the request, the Party requesting the panel 
        review or person within the meaning of paragraph 5 of article 
        1904 may file an appeal of the antidumping or countervailing 
        duty determination with respect to which the request was filed 
        with the United States Court of International Trade.
    ``(b) Decisions of the Court.--
            ``(1) In general.--In any appeal filed under subsection 
        (a)(1) for review of a binational panel determination, the 
        Court of International Trade shall, after examining the legal 
        and factual analysis underlying the findings and conclusions of 
        the panel's decision, determine whether any of the actions 
        described in subsection (a)(1)(A) has been established. If the 
        court finds that any of those actions has been established, the 
        court shall vacate the original panel decision and enter 
        judgment accordingly. If the actions are not established, the 
        court shall affirm the original binational panel decision. 
        Decisions of the Court of International Trade under this 
        section shall be binding on the parties with respect to the 
        matters between the parties that were before the panel.
            ``(2) Decisions where panel not convened.--In the case of 
        an appeal filed under subsection (a)(2) for review of a 
        determination of a competent investigating authority, the Court 
        of International Trade shall, after examining the legal and 
        factual analysis underlying the findings and conclusions of the 
        investigating authority's determination, determine whether the 
        determination was made in accordance with article 1904. If the 
        court finds that the determination was not in accordance with 
        article 1904 or is not supported by the legal and factual 
        analysis, the court shall vacate the investigating authority's 
        determination and enter judgment accordingly. If the court 
        finds that the determination was in accordance with article 
        1904 and is supported by the legal and factual analysis, the 
        court shall affirm the investigating authority's determination. 
        Decisions of the Court of International Trade under this 
        section shall be binding on the parties with respect to the 
        matters between the parties that would have been before a panel 
        had the panel been convened.
    ``(c) Exclusive Jurisdiction.--If a party or person within the 
meaning of paragraph 5 of article 1904 timely files a notice of appeal 
to the Court of International Trade pursuant to this section, then 
jurisdiction exclusively resides with the United States Court of 
International Trade, and such determinations are not subject to review 
by an extraordinary challenge committee under paragraph 13 of article 
1904.
    ``(d) Applicability.--Subsections (a)(1), (b)(1), and (c) apply to 
all goods from NAFTA countries which were subject to an antidumping 
duty or countervailing duty determination of a competent investigating 
authority in the United States.''.
    (b) Conforming Amendment.--The table of contents of the North 
American Free Trade Implementation Act is amended by inserting after 
the item relating to section 404 the following:

``Sec. 404A. Review of binational panel determinations.''.

SEC. 3. JURISDICTION OF THE COURT OF INTERNATIONAL TRADE.

    Section 516A of the Tariff Act of 1930 (19 U.S.C. 1516a) is 
amended--
            (1) in subsection (a)(2)--
                    (A) in subparagraph (A)(i)(I), by striking ``or 
                (viii)'' and inserting ``(viii), (ix), or (x)''; and
                    (B) in subparagraph (B), by adding at the end the 
                following:
                            ``(ix) A final determination of a 
                        binational panel convened pursuant to article 
                        1904 of the NAFTA.
                            ``(x) A final determination of an 
                        investigating authority described in section 
                        404A(a)(2) of the North American Free Trade 
                        Agreement Implementation Act.'';
            (2) in subsection (a)(5), in the matter preceding 
        subparagraph (A), by inserting ``(other than a determination 
        described in subsection (g)(3)(A)(vii))'' after ``apply''; and
            (3) in subsection (g)(3)(A)--
                    (A) in clause (v), by striking ``or'' at the end;
                    (B) in clause (vi), by striking the period and 
                inserting ``, or''; and
                    (C) by adding at the end the following:
                            ``(vii) a determination of which either a 
                        party or person within the meaning of paragraph 
                        5 of article 1904 of the NAFTA has requested 
                        review pursuant to section 404A of the North 
                        American Free Trade Agreement Implementation 
                        Act.''.

SEC. 4. APPLICATION TO CANADA AND MEXICO.

    Pursuant to article 1902 of the North American Free Trade Agreement 
and section 408 of the North American Free Trade Agreement 
Implementation Act, the amendments made by this Act shall apply with 
respect to goods from Canada and Mexico.

SEC. 5. EFFECTIVE DATE.

    The amendments made by this Act shall apply to any final 
determination of a binational panel convened pursuant to article 1904 
of the North American Free Trade Agreement or to a final determination 
of a competent investigating authority with respect to which section 
404A(a)(2) of the North American Free Trade Agreement Implementation 
Act applies, notice of which is published in the Federal Register on or 
after the date of enactment of this Act.
                                 <all>