[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 207 (Friday, December 22, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Page S19253]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mrs. HUTCHISON (for herself and Mr. Breaux):
  S. 1502. A bill to amend the Tariff Act of 1930 to provide that the 
requirements relating to marking imported articles and containers not 
apply to spice products, coffee, or tea; to the Committee on Finance.


              the tariff act of 1930 amendment act of 1995

  Mrs. HUTCHISON. Mr. President, today I am introducing legislation to 
correct several inadvertent results from recent rulings by the U.S. 
Treasury Department changing over 50 years of law and practice in the 
U.S. regarding spices. This legislation will exempt these products, as 
well as coffee and tea, from proposed new regulations that would 
needlessly and inadvertently require their containers to be 
individually marked with country of origin.
  These labeling requirements are unnecessary because the coffee, tea 
and spices under consideration, with one exception, are not 
manufactured in the United States and therefore do not offer consumers 
the option to purchase domestically-grown alternatives. The one 
exception is not processed in such a way as to fall under the new 
regulations, so it will be unaffected by this legislation.
  This bill, supported by the House Ways and Means Committee, was 
included in the House's version of the budget reconciliation bill, but 
was excluded under Senate rules. The legislation is also supported by 
the U.S. Treasury Department, which issued the regulations but requires 
legislative language to except these three areas.
  Finally, my bill is supported by coffee, tea, and spice importers. 
Without this legislation, regulations calling for country of origin 
markings ultimately would require extremely costly record keeping and 
marking of individual jars and canisters of products which are often 
mixes of nearly identical products from different countries and 
different parts of the world. The countries of origin vary quite often 
due to market prices and availability. Marking requirements under the 
new regulations would ultimately cost consumers millions of dollars in 
higher coffee, tea and spice prices while providing no useful 
information.
  Mr. President, I look forward to working with my colleagues to pass 
this important and bipartisan technical correction.
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