II

106TH CONGRESS

1ST SESSION S. 1073

To amend the Trade Act of 1974 to ensure that United States industry

is consulted with respect to all aspects of the WTO dispute settlement process.

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

MAY 18 (legislative day, MAY 14), 1999

Mr. ASHCROFT (for himself, Mr. INOUYE, Mr. BURNS, Mr. GRASSLEY, Mr.

ROBERTS, Mr. ENZI, and Mr. HAGEL) introduced the following bill;

which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance

A BILL

To amend the Trade Act of 1974 to ensure that United

States industry is consulted with respect to all aspects

of the WTO dispute settlement process.

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

3 SECTION 1. PUBLIC PARTICIPATION IN IMPLEMENTING

4 WTO DISPUTE SETTLEMENTS.

5 (a) IN GENERAL.—Section 306(b)(2) of the Trade

6 Act of 1974 (19 U.S.C. 2416(b)(2)) is amended—

7 (1) by striking ‘‘If the’’ and inserting ‘‘(A)

8 FAILURE TO IMPLEMENT RECOMMENDATION.—If

9 the’’; and
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1 (2) by adding at the end the following:

2 ‘‘(B) COMMENT ON PANEL AND APPEL3 LATE BODY REPORTS.—In any case in which a

4 panel or Appellate Body report is adopted in

5 favor of the United States pursuant to the dis6 pute settlement proceedings of the World Trade

7 Organization, the Trade Representative shall

8 within 90 days of the adoption of the panel re9 port (or, if the panel report is appealed, within

10 90 days of the adoption of the Appellate Body

11 report)—

12 ‘‘(i) make publicly available informa13 tion on—

14 ‘‘(I) the report,

15 ‘‘(II) the plans of the foreign

16 country against which the report is

17 issued to implement the recommenda18 tions contained in the report, and

19 ‘‘(III) the time by which the for20 eign country has agreed to implement

21 the recommendations;

22 ‘‘(ii) seek advice from the appropriate

23 committee pursuant to section 135; and

24 ‘‘(iii) seek advice from the Committee

25 on Finance of the Senate and the Com-
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1 mittee on Ways and Means of the House

2 of Representatives and, where appropriate,

3 from the Committee on Agriculture, Nutri4 tion, and Forestry of the Senate and the

5 Committee on Agriculture of the House of

6 Representatives.

7 ‘‘(C) COMMENTS WHEN REASONABLE PE8 RIOD BEYOND 220 DAYS.—If, pursuant to para9 graph 3 of article 21 of the Understanding On

10 Rules And Procedures Governing the Settle11 ment of Disputes of the World Trade Organiza12 tion, it is agreed that a foreign country de13 scribed in subparagraph (B) shall have a time

14 period of more than 220 days to implement the

15 recommendations of a report described in sub16 paragraph (B), the Trade Representative shall

17 90 days before the expiration of the agreed time

18 period—

19 ‘‘(i) provide notice and give interested

20 parties a 30-day period to comment

21 regarding—

22 ‘‘(I) the progress of the foreign

23 country in implementing the rec24 ommendations;
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1 ‘‘(II) any action (including the

2 implementation of any retaliation list)

3 that should be taken if the rec4 ommendations are not being imple5 mented or if the foreign country’s

6 plan for implementing the rec7 ommendations is inconsistent with the

8 report; and

9 ‘‘(III) any other information that

10 may be relevant to the Trade Rep11 resentative in monitoring the foreign

12 country’s compliance with the rec13 ommendations;

14 ‘‘(ii) submit a report to Congress re15 garding the progress made by the foreign

16 country in implementing the recommenda17 tions and any action the Trade Represent18 ative is considering if the recommendations

19 are not implemented or if the plan for im20 plementing the recommendations is incon21 sistent with the report; and

22 ‘‘(iii) seek advice from the appropriate

23 committee pursuant to section 135.

24 ‘‘(D) COMMENTS AFTER AGREED TIME PE25 RIOD EXPIRES.—In the case of a panel or Ap-
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1 pellate Body report described in subparagraph

2 (B), the Trade Representative shall, 60 days

3 after the expiration of the period of time agreed

4 to for implementation pursuant to article 21 of

5 the Understanding On Rules And Procedures

6 Governing the Settlement of Disputes of the

7 World Trade Organization—

8 ‘‘(i) provide notice and give interested

9 parties a 40-day period to comment re10 garding implementation by the foreign

11 country of the recommendations contained

12 in the report; and

13 ‘‘(ii) 20 days after the close of the

14 comment period described in clause (i), re15 port to Congress regarding—

16 ‘‘(I) the foreign country’s imple17 mentation of the recommendations;

18 and

19 ‘‘(II) if the foreign country is not

20 implementing the recommendations,

21 the actions the Trade Representative

22 intends to take under paragraph

23 (1).’’.
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1 SEC. 2. UNITED STATES OBJECTIVES WITH RESPECT TO

2 WTO DISPUTE SETTLEMENTS.

3 (a) IN GENERAL.—In any multilateral review of the

4 Understanding of Rules and Procedures Covering the Set5 tlement of Disputes, the United States Trade Representa6 tive shall seek the adoption of procedures that would re7 quire any WTO member against whom a panel or Appel8 late Body has issued a report—

9 (1) to submit to all interested parties the mem10 ber’s plans for implementing the recommendations

11 contained in the panel report (or Appellate Body re12 port, whichever is applicable) not later than 6

13 months before the end of the reasonable period al14 lowed for the implementation; and

15 (2) to consult with all interested parties regard16 ing the member’s plans for implementing the rec17 ommendations so that any request for modification

18 of the recommendations can be considered before im19 plementation and before the end of the reasonable

20 period.

21 (b) DEFINITIONS.—In this section:

22 (1) REASONABLE PERIOD.—The term ‘‘reason23 able period’’ has the meaning the term has when

24 used in the Understanding of Rules and Procedures

25 Covering the Settlement of Disputes.
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1 (2) UNDERSTANDING OF RULES AND PROCE2 DURES COVERING THE SETTLEMENT OF DIS3 PUTES.—The term ‘‘Understanding of Rules and

4 Procedures Covering the Settlement of Disputes’’

5 means the Understanding of Rules and Procedures

6 Covering the Settlement of Disputes adopted as part

7 of the WTO Agreement.

8 (3) URUGUAY ROUND AGREEMENTS.—The term

9 ‘‘Uruguay Round Agreements’’ has the meaning

10 given such term in section 2(7) of the Uruguay

11 Round Agreements Act (19 U.S.C. 3501(7)).

12 (4) WORLD TRADE ORGANIZATION.—The term

13 ‘‘World Trade Organization’’ means the organization

14 established pursuant to the WTO Agreement.

15 (5) WTO AGREEMENT.—The term ‘‘WTO

16 Agreement’’ means the Agreement Establishing The

17 World Trade Organization entered into on April 15,

18 1994.

19 (6) WTO AND WTO MEMBER.—The terms

20 ‘‘WTO’’ and ‘‘WTO member’’ have the meanings

21 given those terms in section 2 of the Uruguay

22 Round Agreements Act (19 U.S.C. 3501).

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