110 HR 6924 IH: GREEN U.S. House of Representatives 2008-09-17 text/xml EN Pursuant to Title 17 Section 105 of the United States Code, this file is not subject to copyright protection and is in the public domain.

I 110th CONGRESS 2d Session H. R. 6924 IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES September 17, 2008 Mr. Herger (for himself and Mr. Brady of Texas) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Ways and Means A BILL To provide for the modification of duties on environmental goods.

1.

Short title

This Act may be cited as the Green Export Enhancement Act or GREEN Act .

2.

Findings

Congress finds the following: (1)Trade liberalization is among the vital actions that can be taken to facilitate efforts to protect the environment and halt climate change by providing greater access to climate-friendly goods and technologies, particularly in developing countries. (2)Promoting trade in environmental goods complements and supports the objectives of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and contributes to the goal of United States and foreign trade officials in ensuring that climate change mitigation and trade liberalization are conducted in a mutually supportive manner. (3)According to a recent study conducted by the World Bank, entitled International Trade and Climate Change: Economic, Legal, and Institutional Perspectives, the removal of tariffs and nontariff barriers to key environmental technologies could increase trade in these technologies by an additional 7 to 14 percent annually. (4)Reducing or eliminating tariffs on environmental goods, where reciprocal duty reductions or elimination has been achieved for such goods as a result of negotiations in the World Trade Organization, will make a significant and real contribution to furthering global environmental and climate change objectives.

3.

Environmental goods tariff authority

(a)

Proclamation authority

Subject to the consultation and layover requirements of section 115 of the Uruguay Round Agreements Act (19 U.S.C. 3524), the President may proclaim the modification of any duty or staged rate reduction of any duty in Schedule XX on environmental goods, as defined in a multilateral negotiation for the reciprocal elimination, reduction, or harmonization of duties under the auspices of the World Trade Organization, if the United States agrees to such modification or staged rate reduction in such a multilateral negotiation. (b)

Definition

In this section, the term Scheduled XX has the meaning given that term in section 2(5) of the Uruguay Round Agreements Act (19 U.S.C. 3501(5)).