[Congressional Bills 110th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. Con. Res. 11 Introduced in Senate (IS)]







110th CONGRESS
  1st Session
S. CON. RES. 11

 Providing that any agreement relating to trade and investment that is 
  negotiated by the executive branch with another country comply with 
                       certain minimum standards.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                           February 13, 2007

 Mr. Feingold submitted the following concurrent resolution; which was 
                  referred to the Committee on Finance

_______________________________________________________________________

                         CONCURRENT RESOLUTION


 
 Providing that any agreement relating to trade and investment that is 
  negotiated by the executive branch with another country comply with 
                       certain minimum standards.

Whereas there is general consensus among the people of the United States and the 
        global community that, with respect to international trade and 
        investment rules--

    (1) global environmental, labor, health, food security, and other 
public interest standards must be strengthened to prevent a global ``race 
to the bottom'';

    (2) domestic environmental, labor, health, food security, and other 
public interest standards and policies must not be undermined, including 
those based on the use of the precautionary principle (the internationally 
recognized legal principle that holds that, when there is scientific 
uncertainty regarding the potential adverse effects of an action, a 
product, or a technology, a government should act in a way that minimizes 
the risk of harm to human health and the environment);

    (3) provision and regulation of public services such as education, 
health care, transportation, energy, water, and other utilities are basic 
functions of democratic government and must not be undermined;

    (4) raising standards in developing countries requires additional 
assistance and respect for diversity of policies and priorities;

    (5) countries must be allowed to design and implement policies to 
sustain family farms and achieve food security;

    (6) healthy national economies are essential to a healthy global 
economy, and the right of governments to pursue policies to maintain and 
create jobs must be upheld;

    (7) the right of State and local and comparable regional governments of 
all countries to create and enforce diverse policies must be safeguarded 
from imposed downward harmonization; and

    (8) rules for the global economy must be developed and implemented 
democratically and with transparency and accountability;

Whereas many international trade and investment agreements in existence and 
        currently being negotiated do not serve these interests; and
Whereas many international trade and investment agreements in existence have 
        caused substantial harm to the health and well-being of communities in 
        the United States and within countries that are trading partners of the 
        United States: Now, therefore, be it
    Resolved by the Senate (the House of Representatives concurring), 
That any agreement relating to trade and investment that is negotiated 
by the executive branch with another country should comply with the 
following:
            (1) Requirements applying to all countries.--
                    (A) Investor and investment policy.--If the 
                agreement includes any provision relating to foreign 
                investment, the agreement may not permit a foreign 
                investor to challenge or seek compensation because of a 
                measure of a government at the national, State, or 
                local level that protects the public interest, 
                including a measure that protects public health, 
                safety, and welfare, the environment, and worker 
                protections, unless a foreign investor demonstrates 
                that the measure was enacted or applied primarily for 
                the purpose of discriminating against a foreign 
                investor or foreign investment.
                    (B) Services.--The agreement, to the extent 
                applicable, shall comply with the following:
                            (i) In general.--The agreement may not 
                        provide for disciplinary action against a 
                        government measure relating to--
                                    (I) a public service, including 
                                public services for which the 
                                government is not the sole provider;
                                    (II) a service that requires 
                                extensive regulation;
                                    (III) an essential human service; 
                                and
                                    (IV) a service that has an 
                                essentially social component.
                            (ii) Services described.--A service 
                        described in clause (i) includes a public 
                        benefit program, health care, health insurance, 
                        public health, child care, education and 
                        training, the distribution of a controlled 
                        substance or product (including alcohol, 
                        tobacco, and firearms), research and 
                        development on a natural or social science, a 
                        utility (including an energy utility, water, 
                        waste disposal, and sanitation), national 
                        security, maritime, air, surface, and other 
                        transportation services, a postal service, 
                        energy extraction and any related service, and 
                        a correctional service.
                            (iii) Revision of commitments.--The 
                        agreement shall permit a country that has made 
                        a commitment in an area described in clause (i) 
                        to revise that commitment for the purposes of 
                        public interest regulation without any 
                        financial or other trade-related penalty.
                            (iv) Subsidies and government 
                        procurement.--The agreement shall ensure that 
                        any rule governing a subsidy or government 
                        procurement fully protects the ability of a 
                        government to support and purchase a service in 
                        a way that promotes economic development, 
                        social justice and equity, public health, 
                        environmental quality, human rights, and the 
                        rights of workers.
                            (v) Regulation of foreign investors.--The 
                        agreement shall guarantee that all governments 
                        that are parties to the agreement may regulate 
                        foreign investors in services and other service 
                        providers in order to protect public health and 
                        safety, consumers, the environment, and 
                        workers' rights, without requiring the 
                        governments to establish their regulations to 
                        be the least burdensome option for foreign 
                        service providers.
                    (C) Environmental, labor, and other public interest 
                standards.--The agreement--
                            (i) may not supersede the rights and 
                        obligations of parties under multilateral 
                        environmental, labor, and human rights 
                        agreements;
                            (ii) shall, to the extent applicable, 
                        include commitments--
                                    (I) to adhere to specified workers' 
                                rights and environmental standards;
                                    (II) to enforce existing domestic 
                                labor and environmental provisions; and
                                    (III) to abide by the core labor 
                                standards of the International Labor 
                                Organization; and
                            (iii) shall subject the commitments 
                        described in clause (ii) to binding enforcement 
                        on the same terms as commercial provisions.
                    (D) Food safety.--The agreement may not--
                            (i) require international harmonization of 
                        food safety standards in a manner that 
                        undermines the level of human health protection 
                        provided under the laws of a country; or
                            (ii) restrict the ability of governments to 
                        enact policies to guarantee the right of 
                        consumers to know where and how food is 
                        produced.
                    (E) Agriculture and food security.--The agreement 
                may not, with respect to food and other agricultural 
                commodities--
                            (i) contain provisions that prevent 
                        countries from--
                                    (I) establishing domestic and 
                                global reserves;
                                    (II) managing supply;
                                    (III) enforcing antidumping 
                                provisions;
                                    (IV) ensuring fair market prices; 
                                or
                                    (V) vigorously enforcing antitrust 
                                laws, in order to guarantee competitive 
                                markets for family farmers; or
                            (ii) prevent countries from developing the 
                        necessary sanitary and phytosanitary standards 
                        to prevent the introduction of pathogens or 
                        other potentially invasive species that may 
                        adversely affect agriculture, human health, or 
                        the environment.
                    (F) Governmental authority.--The agreement may not 
                contain provisions that bind national, State, local, or 
                comparable regional governments to limiting regulatory, 
                taxation, spending, or procurement authority--
                            (i) without sufficient transparency as 
                        described in paragraph (4), including an 
                        opportunity for public review and comment; and
                            (ii) without the explicit, informed consent 
                        of the national, State, local, or comparable 
                        regional legislative body concerned.
                    (G) Access to medicines and seeds.--
                            (i) Medicines.--The agreement may not 
                        contain provisions that prevent countries from 
                        taking measures to protect public health by 
                        ensuring access to medicines.
                            (ii) Seeds.--The agreement may not 
                        constrain the rights of farmers to save, use, 
                        exchange, or sell farm-saved seeds and other 
                        publicly available seed varieties.
            (2) Requirements applying to only the united states.--
                    (A) Temporary entry of workers.--The agreement may 
                not--
                            (i) make a new commitment on the temporary 
                        entry of workers, because such policies should 
                        be determined by the Congress, after 
                        consideration by the congressional committees 
                        with jurisdiction over immigration, to avoid an 
                        array of inconsistent policies; or
                            (ii) include any policy that fails to--
                                    (I) include labor market tests that 
                                ensure that the employment of temporary 
                                workers will not adversely affect other 
                                similarly employed workers;
                                    (II) involve labor unions in the 
                                labor certification process implemented 
                                under the immigration program for 
                                temporary workers granted nonimmigrant 
                                status under section 
                                101(a)(15)(H)(i)(b) of the Immigration 
                                and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 
                                1101(a)(H)(i)(b)), including the filing 
                                by an employer of an application under 
                                section 212(n)(1) of that Act (8 U.S.C. 
                                1182(n)(1)); or
                                    (III) guarantee the same workplace 
                                protections for temporary workers that 
                                are available to all workers.
                    (B) Policies to support united states workers and 
                small, minority, and women-owned businesses.--The 
                agreement shall preserve the right of Federal, State, 
                and local governments to maintain or establish policies 
                to support United States workers and small, minority, 
                or women-owned businesses, including policies with 
                respect to government procurement, loans, and 
                subsidies.
                    (C) United states trade laws.--The agreement may 
                not--
                            (i) contain a provision that modifies or 
                        amends, or requires a modification of or an 
                        amendment to, any law of the United States 
                        regarding safeguards from unfair foreign trade 
                        practices, including any law providing for--
                                    (I) the imposition of 
                                countervailing or antidumping duties;
                                    (II) protection from unfair methods 
                                of competition or unfair acts in the 
                                importation of articles;
                                    (III) relief from injury caused by 
                                import competition;
                                    (IV) relief from unfair trade 
                                practices; or
                                    (V) the imposition of import 
                                restrictions to protect national 
                                security; or
                            (ii) weaken the existing terms of the 
                        Agreement on Implementation of Article VI of 
                        the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade 
                        1994, or the Agreement on Subsidies and 
                        Countervailing Measures, of the World Trade 
                        Organization, including through the domestic 
                        implementation of rulings of dispute settlement 
                        bodies.
                    (D) Food safety.--The agreement may not--
                            (i) restrict the ability of the United 
                        States to ensure that food products entering 
                        the United States are rigorously inspected to 
                        establish that they meet all food safety 
                        standards in the United States, including 
                        inspection standards; or
                            (ii) force the United States to accept 
                        different food safety standards as 
                        ``equivalent'', in a manner that undermines the 
                        level of human health protection provided under 
                        domestic law.
            (3) Treatment of developing countries.--The agreement shall 
        grant special and differential treatment for developing 
        countries with regard to the timeframe for implementation of 
        the agreement as well as other concerns.
            (4) Transparency.--
                    (A) In general.--The process of negotiating the 
                agreement shall be open and transparent, including 
                through--
                            (i) prompt and regular disclosure of full 
                        negotiating texts; and
                            (ii) prompt and regular disclosure of 
                        negotiating positions of the United States.
                    (B) Public availability of offers and requests.--In 
                negotiating the agreement, any request or offer 
                relating to investment, procurement, or trade in 
                services must be made public within 10 days after its 
                submission if such request or offer--
                            (i) proposes that specific Federal, State, 
                        or local laws or regulations in the United 
                        States, including subsidies, tax rules, 
                        procurement rules, professional standards, and 
                        rules on temporary entry of persons, be 
                        changed, eliminated, or scheduled under the 
                        agreement;
                            (ii) proposes to cover under the 
                        agreement--
                                    (I) specific essential public 
                                services, including public benefits 
                                programs, health care, education, 
                                national security, sanitation, water, 
                                energy, and other utilities; or
                                    (II) private service sectors that 
                                require extensive regulation or have an 
                                inherently social component, including 
                                maritime, air transport, trucking, and 
                                other transportation services, postal 
                                services, utilities such as water, 
                                energy, and sanitation, corrections, 
                                education and childcare, and health 
                                care; or
                            (iii) proposes an action or process of 
                        general application that may interfere with the 
                        ability of the United States or State, local, 
                        or tribal governments to adopt, implement, or 
                        enforce laws and regulations identified in 
                        clause (ii)(I) or to provide or regulate 
                        services identified in clause (ii)(II).
                    (C) Representation of interests.--The broad array 
                of constituencies representing the majority of the 
                people of the United States, including labor unions, 
                environmental organizations, consumer groups, family 
                farm groups, public health advocates, faith-based 
                organizations, and civil rights groups, must have at 
                least the same representation on trade advisory 
                committees and the same access to trade negotiators and 
                negotiating fora as those constituencies representing 
                commercial interests.
                    (D) Dispute resolution mechanisms.--Any dispute 
                resolution mechanism established in the agreement shall 
                be open and transparent, including through disclosure 
                to the public of documents and access to hearings, and 
                must permit participation by nonparties through the 
                filing of amicus briefs, as well as provide for 
                standing for State and local governments as 
                intervenors.
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