[Congressional Bills 108th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 3564 Introduced in House (IH)]






108th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 3564

     To remove United States fair trade laws from the World Trade 
            Organization dispute settlement system process.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                           November 20, 2003

Mr. Strickland introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
                      Committee on Ways and Means

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
     To remove United States fair trade laws from the World Trade 
            Organization dispute settlement system process.

    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 ``Economic Sovereignty and Job 
Security Act of 2003''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress finds the following:
            (1) United States fair trade laws are modeled after 
        provisions in the Uruguay Round Agreements and are consistent 
        with them.
            (2) World Trade Organization (WTO) dispute settlement 
        bodies have consistently opposed import relief properly imposed 
        under these United States trade laws.
            (3) WTO dispute settlement bodies have regularly ignored 
        understandings and agreements--such as those on antidumping, 
        countervailing duty, safeguards, and market access--that have 
        been fundamental to United States participation in the WTO, 
        have invented new obligations, have disregarded the appropriate 
        standard of review, have declined to afford the proper 
        deference to decisions of United States authorities, and have 
        undermined the purpose of the WTO dispute settlement agreement.
            (4) A 2003 United States General Accounting Office report 
        demonstrates that trade remedies imposed by the United States 
        are two or three times more likely to be challenged--and found 
        in violation of WTO rules--than those imposed by other major 
        trade remedy users.
            (5) Enforcement of these very same fair trade laws are 
        vital to United States industries, workers, and communities and 
        are essential to maintaining a domestic manufacturing sector.
            (6) WTO dispute settlement panelists often have been 
        willing, as evidenced by their decisions, to act as activists 
        against the fair trade laws.
            (7) WTO decisions that undermine the United States fair 
        trade laws operate as a threat to United States sovereignty 
        principles.
            (8) Abuses of the WTO dispute settlement system with 
        respect to fair trade laws call into question the WTO's overall 
        credibility and undermine public support for such international 
        trading systems.

SEC. 3. PROHIBITION ON UNITED STATES CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE WORLD TRADE 
              ORGANIZATION.

    (a) Prohibition.--No funds available to the Department of State or 
any other Federal department or agency may be used to make a United 
States contribution to the World Trade Organization (WTO).
    (b) Exception.--The prohibition in subsection (a) shall not apply 
if the President determines and certifies to Congress that the 
Understanding on Rules and Procedures Governing the Settlement of 
Disputes (as referred to in section 101(d)(16) of the Uruguay Round 
Agreements Act) does not apply with respect to the United States 
involving a dispute under the Agreement on Implementation of Article VI 
of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade 1994 (as referred to in 
section 101(d)(7) of the Uruguay Round Agreements Act), the Agreement 
on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures (as referred to in section 
101(d)(12) of the Uruguay Round Agreements Act), and the Agreement on 
Safeguards (as referred to in section 101(d)(13) of the Uruguay Round 
Agreements Act).
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