[Congressional Bills 109th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 5237 Introduced in House (IH)]







109th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 5237

  To seek the inclusion of certain requirements of the International 
  Health Regulations of the World Health Organization as obligations 
                  under the World Trade Organization.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             April 27, 2006

  Mr. Markey introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
   Committee on Ways and Means, and in addition to the Committees on 
  International Relations and Energy and Commerce, 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 seek the inclusion of certain requirements of the International 
  Health Regulations of the World Health Organization as obligations 
                  under the World Trade Organization.

    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 ``Global Trade Requires Unmitigated 
Truth in Health (TRUTH) Act'' .

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    The Congress finds as follows:
            (1) The rise of global trade has created both new 
        commercial opportunities and new health risks.
            (2) Governments have the right and responsibility to 
        protect their countries from the threat of disease.
            (3) Trade is responsible for contributing to the rapid 
        spread of disease around the globe and increases the risk of a 
        pandemic outbreak.
            (4) Those who participate in world trade, therefore, have a 
        responsibility to promptly report and appropriately respond to 
        infectious diseases on a timely basis to minimize the potential 
        for global pandemics.
            (5) The World Health Organization has created the World 
        Health Organization International Health Regulations to 
        prevent, protect against, and control disease and provide a 
        public health response to the international spread of disease 
        in ways that are commensurate with and restricted to public 
        health risks, and that avoid unnecessary interference with 
        international traffic and trade.
            (6) The failure of countries to be transparent and 
        responsive to the existence or spread of disease in a country 
        that is a member of the World Trade Organization threatens the 
        free flow of goods and services that is a primary objective of 
        the GATT 1994 and other agreements of the World Trade 
        Organization.
            (7) The experience with the SARS outbreak in 2002 and 2003 
        should be a clear warning that the system of public health 
        readiness can be easily compromised by delays in reporting the 
        earliest cases of an outbreak by a country reluctant to 
        publicize a problem with an economic downside, no matter the 
        public health consequences.
            (8) If a country fails to abide by regulations which are 
        designed to prevent, protect against, and control disease and 
        provide a public health response to the international spread of 
        disease without unnecessary interference with international 
        traffic and trade, it may be necessary to take actions against 
        that country which restrict or otherwise interfere with 
        international traffic or trade in the best interest of public 
        health.

SEC. 3. WTO PROPOSAL.

    (a) Action by United States Trade Representative.--The United 
States Trade Representative shall--
            (1) propose to the World Trade Organization that the rights 
        and obligations of the World Trade Organization should take 
        into account whether countries are undermining the trade system 
        by failing to abide by the rules of other international 
        organizations with regard to public health, specifically the 
        International Health Regulations of the World Health 
        Organization; and
            (2) include in the proposal options for its implementation, 
        such as--
                    (A) provisions that would give members of the World 
                Trade Organization the right to impose sanctions or 
                other punitive measures on members that have been found 
                to violate the International Health Regulations of the 
                World Health Organization; and
                    (B) membership criteria for current and potential 
                members of the World trade Organization that would 
                include the requirement to uphold the trade system by 
                abiding by rules of other international organizations 
                with regard to public health.
    (b) Report to Congress.--The United States Trade Representative 
shall report to the Congress, not later than 90 days after the date of 
the enactment of this Act, and not later than the end of each 90-day 
period thereafter, on steps the Trade Representative has taken to carry 
out subsection (a), and the results of those steps.

SEC. 4. ANNUAL REPORT ON COUNTRY COMPLIANCE WITH INTERNATIONAL HEALTH 
              REGULATIONS.

    (a) In General.--The Secretary of Health and Human Services shall 
transmit to the Speaker of the House of Representatives and the 
Committee on Energy and Commerce of the House of Representatives and 
the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions of the Senate, 
not later than December 1, 2006, and not later than December 1 of each 
year thereafter, a full and complete report regarding the status of the 
compliance with and observance of the International Health Regulations 
of the World Health Organization in each country that is a member of 
that Organization.
    (b) Contents.--Each report under subsection (a) shall include the 
following information:
            (1) The extent to which each country complies with and 
        enforces the requirements contained in the International Health 
        Regulations.
            (2) The extent to which each country uses effective 
        epidemiological principles to detect, reduce, or eliminate the 
        sources from which infection spreads, to improve sanitation in 
        and around ports and airports, to prevent the dissemination of 
        vectors, and, in general, to encourage epidemiological 
        activities on the national level so that there is little risk 
        of outside infection establishing itself in that country.
            (3) The steps that the Secretary has taken to alter United 
        States programs or policies with respect to any country because 
        of unsatisfactory compliance with the International Health 
        Regulations.
            (4) For each country in which the report indicates that the 
        country's health administration has failed to notify the World 
        Health Organization within 24 hours of its being informed that 
        the first case of a disease subject to the International Health 
        Regulations, that is neither an imported case nor a transferred 
        case, has occurred in its territory, or, within the subsequent 
        24 hours, has failed to notify the infected area, the extent to 
        which the United States has taken or will take action to 
        encourage such notifications.
            (5) The extent to which each country communicates frequent 
        and detailed information to the World Health Organization about 
        the presence of plague, cholera, yellow fever, avian influenza, 
        Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), and any other disease 
        determined by the Secretary that is present in its country. The 
        report shall describe whether each country communicates to the 
        World Health Organization the number of cases and deaths at 
        least once each week, and the precautions taken to prevent the 
        spread of the disease, in particular the measures which are 
        being applied to prevent the spread of the disease to other 
        territories by vessels, aircraft, trains, road vehicles, other 
        means of transport, and containers leaving the infected area.
            (6) What steps the government of each country has taken to 
        ensure that ports and airports in its territory have at their 
        disposal an organization and equipment adequate for the 
        application of the measures provided for in the International 
        Health Regulations.
            (7) What steps the government of each country has taken to 
        make available, at as many of the ports and airports in a 
        territory as practicable, an organized medical and health 
        service with adequate staff, equipment, and premises, in 
        particular facilities for the prompt isolation and care of 
        infected persons, for disinfection, disinsecting, and 
        deratting, for bacteriological investigation, for the 
        collection and examination of rodents for plague infection, for 
        collection of water and food samples and their dispatch to a 
        laboratory for examination, and for other appropriate measures 
        provided for by the International Health Regulations.
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