[Congressional Bills 113th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 291 Introduced in House (IH)]

113th CONGRESS
  1st Session
H. RES. 291

Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that the Republic 
   of Argentina's membership in the G20 should be conditioned on its 
 adherence to international norms of economic relations and commitment 
                          to the rule of law.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                              July 9, 2013

 Mr. Smith of New Jersey (for himself and Mr. DeSantis) submitted the 
 following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign 
                                Affairs

_______________________________________________________________________

                               RESOLUTION


 
Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that the Republic 
   of Argentina's membership in the G20 should be conditioned on its 
 adherence to international norms of economic relations and commitment 
                          to the rule of law.

Whereas Argentina has enjoyed the privilege of membership in the Group of Twenty 
        Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors (G20);
Whereas at the Summit of the Group of Twenty in 2008, G20 leaders declared that 
        ``our work will be guided by a shared belief that market principles, 
        open trade and investment regimes, and effectively regulated financial 
        markets foster the dynamism, innovation, entrepreneurship that are 
        essential for economic growth, employment and poverty reduction'';
Whereas at the Pittsburgh Summit of 2009, G20 nations ``designated the G20 to be 
        the premier forum for our international economic cooperation'';
Whereas at the Cannes Summit of 2011, G20 leaders reaffirmed their ``commitment 
        to work together'' and stressed among other principles the need to 
        conduct International Monetary Fund surveillance of national economies, 
        avoid protectionism and the need to reinforce the multilateral trading 
        system, strengthen anti-money laundering measures, and combat financing 
        of terrorism;
Whereas the Republic of Argentina has consistently violated the spirit and 
        letter of these and other G20 declarations through its policy of 
        expropriating the property of foreign investors, evading the judgments 
        of United States courts, ignoring decisions of international arbitral 
        forums, refusing to comply with International Monetary Fund membership 
        requirements, and failing to implement anti-money laundering and 
        terrorist financing measures;
Whereas Argentina's defiance of more than 100 United States court judgments 
        stemming from Argentina's default on more than $81,000,000,000 of 
        sovereign debt is ongoing and escalating;
Whereas notwithstanding that it holds more than $41,000,000,000 in foreign 
        currency reserves, Argentina refuses to pay these judgments, which are 
        estimated to be approximately $5,000,000,000, independent of various 
        further direct and indirect costs incurred by United States bondholders, 
        investors, and taxpayers;
Whereas Argentina has refused to pay even the de minimis fees required of all 
        parties to an ICSID dispute to fund the dispute-settlement process, 
        demonstrating its utter lack of respect for the World Bank's 
        jurisdiction;
Whereas in a display that illustrates Argentina's contempt for the rule of law, 
        Argentina's legal counsel vowed at a hearing before the United States 
        Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit that Argentina would ``not 
        voluntarily obey'' any rulings that upheld the judgments and orders of 
        the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York;
Whereas Argentina has undermined global sanctions on Iran by expanding bilateral 
        trade with Iran tenfold over the last 5 years;
Whereas Argentina has circumvented due legal process by agreeing with Iran to 
        jointly ``re-investigate'' the 1994 terrorist bombing of the Argentine 
        Jewish Mutual Association (Asociacion Mutual Israelita Argentina, or 
        AMIA) in Buenos Aires, which killed 85 people and injured hundreds 
        more--an agreement that ignores the 2006 indictment by independent 
        Argentine Government prosecutors of five senior Iranian Government 
        officials for orchestrating the attack, which led to the issuance of 
        Interpol arrest warrants against the Iranian Government officials;
Whereas the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) has given Argentina the worst 
        evaluation of any G20 nation, highlighting Argentina's regulatory 
        shortcomings and the vulnerability of Argentina's financial institutions 
        to terrorist financing and money laundering;
Whereas United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and United States 
        Department of State officials have raised concerns about Argentina's 
        growing role in the international drug trade, with a specific focus on 
        Argentina as an increasingly important source of the precursor chemicals 
        used in manufacturing methamphetamine, much of which is consumed in the 
        United States;
Whereas Argentina has undermined the rule of law by expropriating assets from 
        the Spanish firm Repsol without compensation, making it more difficult 
        for Argentine businesses and individuals to access international capital 
        markets;
Whereas Argentina has enacted a so-called ``anti-monopoly'' law and solely 
        enforced it against an independent media group that has been critical of 
        the Government, indicating that the law's true intent is to limit the 
        freedom of expression to criticize the Government;
Whereas the Argentine executive branch has sought to undermine the independence 
        of the Argentine judiciary by threatening to impeach the judges of the 
        Federal Civil and Commercial Court who ruled in favor of the independent 
        media group in its lawsuit alleging that the anti-monopoly law is an 
        unconstitutional attack on freedom of the press; and
Whereas Argentina's actions have been injurious to its credit worthiness and 
        detrimental to its own citizens by directly contributing to Argentina's 
        double-digit inflation, economic stagnation, growing isolation from the 
        international community, and borrowing costs that are three times higher 
        than neighboring countries with similar fiscal profiles: Now, therefore, 
        be it
    Resolved, That the House of Representatives--
            (1) finds that the Republic of Argentina has failed to meet 
        the responsibilities inherent to membership in the G20; and
            (2) calls upon the President and the Secretary of the 
        Treasury to work with the governments of the G20 members to--
                    (A) terminate the participation of Argentina in the 
                G20 until the President determines and reports to 
                Congress that Argentina has--
                            (i) reversed efforts to expropriate foreign 
                        investment in Argentina;
                            (ii) fully satisfied all outstanding 
                        judgments of United States courts against it;
                            (iii) fully honored all awards of 
                        international arbitral panels against it; and
                            (iv) complied with the recommendations of 
                        the Financial Action Task Force; and
                    (B) condition Argentina's future membership in the 
                G20 on its adherence and commitment to international 
                norms of economic relations and commitment to the rule 
                of law.
                                 <all>