[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 4263 Introduced in House (IH)]

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116th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 4263

  To prohibit importation of certain products of Brazil, to prohibit 
  certain assistance to Brazil, and to prohibit negotiations to enter 
                into a free trade agreement with Brazil.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                           September 10, 2019

  Mr. DeFazio (for himself, Mr. Michael F. Doyle of Pennsylvania, Ms. 
Norton, Ms. Eshoo, Ms. Hill of California, Ms. Pingree, Mr. Cohen, Mr. 
Hastings, Ms. Schakowsky, Mr. Thompson of California, Mr. Grijalva, Ms. 
 Tlaib, Mr. Huffman, and Mr. Lowenthal) introduced the following bill; 
which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs, and in addition 
  to the Committee on Ways and Means, 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 prohibit importation of certain products of Brazil, to prohibit 
  certain assistance to Brazil, and to prohibit negotiations to enter 
                into a free trade agreement with Brazil.

    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 ``Act for the Amazon Act''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress finds the following:
            (1) Two-thirds of the Amazon rainforest is located in 
        Brazil's borders.
            (2) The Amazon rainforest is commonly referred to as the 
        ``lungs of the Earth''.
            (3) The Amazon rainforest contains upwards of 100 billion 
        metric tons of sequestered carbon, helping to stabilize the 
        Earth's climate.
            (4) The Amazon rainforest is home to 10 percent of the 
        Earth's biodiversity.
            (5) More forest has been cleared in Brazil in the summer 
        2019 alone than in the last three years combined.
            (6) Brazilian satellites indicate that about three football 
        fields worth of trees in the Amazon rainforest located in 
        Brazil were felled every minute in July 2019.
            (7) As of August 26, 2019, there were more than 41,000 
        fires burning in the Amazon rainforest.
            (8) The National Institute for Space Research (INPE) 
        reports this to be a 78-percent increase from fires during the 
        same period in 2018.
            (9) These fires have released the equivalent of 228 
        megatons of carbon so far this year.
            (10) Natural fires in the Amazon rainforest are rare, and 
        the majority of fires are human-caused to deforest land for 
        agriculture and mining.
            (11) Cattle ranching leads to approximately 80 percent of 
        deforestation of the Amazon rainforest.
            (12) Soy cultivation has led to the destruction of 40,000 
        square miles of native forests in Brazil since 2008.
            (13) Deforestation is taking place illegally in some of the 
        more than 305 indigenous territories in Brazil.
            (14) Brazilian President Bolsonaro has implemented policies 
        that violate the collective and individual rights of indigenous 
        peoples.
            (15) Brazil's National Indigenous Movement has called for 
        an international boycott of commodities that are in conflict 
        with indigenous territories.
            (16) President Bolsonaro has promised to scale back 
        enforcement of environmental laws.
            (17) President Bolsonaro blames nongovernmental 
        organizations for the fires without evidence.
            (18) President Bolsonaro has rejected deforestation data 
        from his own government agency, the INPE, as false and later 
        fired the INPE director for rebutting his criticisms.
            (19) Under President Bolsonaro's administration, 
        deforestation has spiked by more than 50 percent.
            (20) President Bolsonaro's chief of staff said that G7 aid 
        ``would be put to better use reforesting Europe''.
            (21) Brazil's Environment Minister has inhibited the 
        environmental enforcement agencies from investigating 
        environmental crimes.
            (22) Brazil's Environment Minister is a convicted 
        environmental criminal.
            (23) Brazilian government enforcement actions, including 
        fines and the confiscation and destruction of illegal 
        equipment, has significantly decreased under the Bolsonaro 
        administration.
            (24) The continued lack of enforcement actions against 
        deforestation tactics and unwillingness to aggressively fight 
        the fires in the Amazon rainforest by the Government of Brazil 
        poses a direct threat to United States interests and national 
        security.
            (25) The destruction of the Amazon rainforest poses serious 
        threats to our ecosystem, potentially significantly affecting 
        agricultural production, increasing extreme weather events, and 
        more.
            (26) The United States is Brazil's third largest export 
        market.
            (27) Brazilian soy and cattle exports accounted for more 
        than $31 billion and $5 billion, respectively, in 2017, leading 
        the world in exports of both commodities.

SEC. 3. PROHIBITION ON IMPORTATION OF PRODUCTS OF BRAZIL.

    (a) In General.--Beginning on the date of the enactment of this 
Act, the President shall exercise all powers granted by the 
International Emergency Economic Powers Act (50 U.S.C. 1701 et seq.) 
(except that the requirements of section 202 of such Act (50 U.S.C. 
1701) shall not apply) to the extent necessary to prohibit the 
importation of any products described in subsection (b) that are 
products of Brazil.
    (b) Products Described.--The products described in this subsection 
are the following:
            (1) Beef products classified under heading 0201 of the HTS.
            (2) Soy products classified under--
                    (A) heading 1201, 1507, or 2304 of the HTS; or
                    (B) subheading 1208.10.00, 1517.90.10, 1517.90.90, 
                or 2008.99.6100 of the HTS.
            (3) Leather and hide products classified under heading 4104 
        of the HTS.
            (4) Timber products classified under heading 4403 of the 
        HTS.
            (5) Sugar products classified under heading 1701 of the 
        HTS.
            (6) Pulp and paper products classified under chapter 47 or 
        48 of the HTS.
            (7) Tobacco products classified under chapter 24 of the 
        HTS.
            (8) Corn products classified under--
                    (A) heading 1005 of the HTS; or
                    (B) subheading 0709.99.45, 0710.40.00, 0712.90.8, 
                1004.23.00, 1102.20.00, 1103.13.00, 1108.12.00, 
                1515.21.00, 1901.90.91, 1905.90.90, 2004.90.85, 
                2005.80.00, 2302.10.00, 2303.10.00, 2303.10.00, 
                2306.90.01, 3505.10.00, or 9902.01.01 of the HTS.
            (9) Crude petroleum, natural gas, and petroleum refinery 
        products classified under heading 2707, 2709, 2710, 2711, or 
        2712 of the HTS.
    (c) HTS Defined.--In this section, the term ``HTS'' means the 
Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States.

SEC. 4. PROHIBITION ON ASSISTANCE TO BRAZIL.

    (a) In General.--Beginning on the date of the enactment of this 
Act, the President may not provide assistance described in subsection 
(b) to Brazil.
    (b) Assistance Described.--The assistance described in this 
subsection is the following:
            (1) Military assistance, including--
                    (A) military-to-military cooperation and exercises;
                    (B) support for military innovation and 
                modernization, including the transfer of surplus 
                military equipment or technology; and
                    (C) military education and exchanges.
            (2) Security assistance.

SEC. 5. PROHIBITION ON NEGOTIATIONS TO ENTER INTO A FREE TRADE 
              AGREEMENT WITH BRAZIL.

    (a) Sense of Congress.--It is the sense of Congress that the 
Government of Brazil's failure to aggressively fight the fires in the 
Amazon rainforest and deforestation tactics more generally provide yet 
another justification as to why the United States should not carry out 
negotiations to enter into a free trade agreement with Brazil.
    (b) Prohibition.--The Office of the United States Trade 
Representative and any other Federal department or agency may not carry 
out negotiations to enter into a free trade agreement with Brazil.
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