[Congressional Bills 107th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 1827 Introduced in Senate (IS)]







107th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                S. 1827

  To provide permanent authorization for International Labor Affairs 
Bureau to continue and enhance their work to alleviate child labor and 
 improve respect for internationally recognized worker rights and core 
                labor standards, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                           December 13, 2001

 Mr. Harkin (for himself, Mr. Kennedy, and Mr. Baucus) introduced the 
 following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on 
                           Foreign Relations

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
  To provide permanent authorization for International Labor Affairs 
Bureau to continue and enhance their work to alleviate child labor and 
 improve respect for internationally recognized worker rights and core 
                labor standards, 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 ``Fair International Labor Standards 
in Trade and Investment Act of 2001''.

SEC. 2. OBJECTIVES; DUTIES OF ILAB.

    (a) Objectives.--The policy objectives of Congress with respect to 
international labor issues are as follows:
            (1) Fundamental economic, political, social, technological, 
        and cross-cultural changes are proceeding in ways that 
        accelerate global integration and interdependence.
            (2) The United States national interest is served by more 
        open markets, expanding trade, and investment liberalization 
        within the community of nations, balanced by increased respect 
        and enforcement of universal human rights as defined in the 
        Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the ILO Declaration 
        of Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work.
            (3) The American people believe that more open 
        international trade, investment, and market access are not ends 
        in themselves, but means for attaining greater economic 
        justice, social responsibility, and sustainable development in 
        both the United States and the global economy.
            (4) A principal objective of the international economic 
        policy of the United States is to spread the benefits of trade 
        and investment liberalization as broadly as possible within all 
        trading nations and not just between them.
            (5) United States international economic policy should 
        emphasize the following 4 principal goals:
                    (A) The achievement of steadily increasing 
                purchasing power throughout the global economy in 
                tandem with expanding global productive capacity that 
                leads to--
                            (i) the elimination of abusive child labor;
                            (ii) rising living standards in developing 
                        and developed national economies; and
                            (iii) the acceleration of broad-based 
                        consumer markets within all trading nations.
                    (B) The discouragement of economic development by 
                any nation based on the commercial exploitation of 
                child labor and the systematic denial of 
                internationally recognized worker rights and core labor 
                standards, in order to gain illegitimate competitive 
                advantage in international trade and investment.
                    (C) The expansion of global trade and investment, 
                not protectionism, based on growing public confidence 
                that the rules governing international flows of 
                capital, goods, services, technology, and labor are 
                structured, in law and practice, to end abusive child 
                labor and promote the rights and interests of working 
                people as well as those of other parties to 
                international agreements.
                    (D) The alleviation of poverty, hunger, abusive 
                child labor, and illiteracy through the empowerment of 
                working people in all trading nations so that they can 
                more fully participate in policy-making and benefit 
                equitably from the fruits of their labor in the conduct 
                of global trade, investment, and commerce.
    (b) Duties of ILAB.--Under the guidance of the Secretary of Labor, 
the International Labor Affairs Bureau shall have the primary 
responsibility for advancing the policy objectives and goals set out in 
subsection (a) and for coordinating all related United States 
activities.

SEC. 3. FUNCTIONS.

    The Secretary of Labor is authorized to act through the 
International Labor Affairs Bureau, to carry out the following 
activities to promote fair international standards in trade and 
investment:
            (1) Represent the United States in the International Labor 
        Organization (ILO) and support that Organization's activities, 
        consulting with the organizations that represent employers and 
        employees in that body.
            (2) Provide bilateral and multilateral technical assistance 
        to enable developing countries in particular to--
                    (A) implement core labor standards;
                    (B) strengthen governmental capacity to enforce 
                national labor laws and protect internationally 
                recognized worker rights; and
                    (C) develop policies to assist workers who are 
                adversely affected by shifts in trade and investments 
                flows, structural adjustments, and macroeconomic 
                changes within national economies and the global 
                economy respectively.
            (3) Provide bilateral aid to foreign countries to eliminate 
        abusive child labor and other trade and investment-related 
        worker rights violations and to support workforce development 
        programs to foster broad-based, equitable, and sustainable 
        economic development in recipient countries.
            (4) Compile and report annually to Congress, on the extent 
        to which each foreign country that has a trade and investment 
        agreement with the United States protects the free exercise of 
        internationally recognized worker rights, as required under 
        United States law, and promotes core labor standards as 
        embodied in the ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and 
        Rights at Work.
            (5) Conduct research and analysis on the relationship 
        between internationally recognized worker rights and core labor 
        standards and the conduct of international, trade, commerce, 
        and investment and related trends.

SEC. 4. GRANTS.

    The Secretary of Labor may award grants and enter into cooperative 
agreements and contracts to carry out the functions described in 
section 3.

SEC. 5. AUTHORIZATION OF FUNDS.

    There are authorized to be appropriated to the Secreatry of Labor 
such sums as are necessary to carry out the provisions of this Act.
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