II 

115TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION S. 2307 

To require countries to comply with certain labor standards to be eligible 

for the Generalized System of Preferences, and for other purposes. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

JANUARY 16, 2018 

Mr. MENENDEZ (for himself and Mr. BROWN) introduced the following bill; 

which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance 

A BILL 

To require countries to comply with certain labor standards 

to be eligible for the Generalized System of Preferences, 

and for other purposes. 

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

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Labor Rights for De5 velopment Act of 2018’’. 

6 SEC. 2. LABOR STANDARDS FOR BENEFICIARY DEVEL7 OPING COUNTRIES. 

8 (a) IN GENERAL.—Section 502(b)(2)(G) of the 

9 Trade Act of 1974 (19 U.S.C. 2462(b)(2)(G)) is amended 

10 to read as follows: 


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1 ‘‘(G)(i)(I) Such country has not estab2 lished, in law and in practice, the following 

3 rights as defined by the International Labour 

4 Organization: 

5 ‘‘(aa) Freedom of association. 

6 ‘‘(bb) The effective recognition of the 

7 right to collective bargaining. 

8 ‘‘(cc) The elimination of all forms of 

9 compulsory or forced labor. 

10 ‘‘(dd) The effective abolition of child 

11 labor and the prohibition on the worst 

12 forms of child labor. 

13 ‘‘(ee) The elimination of discrimina14 tion in respect of employment and occupa15 tion. 

16 ‘‘(ff) Acceptable conditions of work 

17 with respect to minimum wages, hours of 

18 work, and occupational safety and health. 

19 ‘‘(II) Such country does not provide rea20 sonable access to the appropriate United States 

21 officials to investigate and monitor compliance 

22 with the rights specified in subclause (I), in23 cluding by ensuring full, independent access to 

24 work sites, workers, and managers for the com25 pletion of monitoring visits. 


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1 ‘‘(ii) During the 5-year period beginning 

2 on the date of the enactment of the Labor 

3 Rights for Development Act of 2018, clause (i) 

4 shall not apply to any country that— 

5 ‘‘(I) is making continual progress to6 ward establishing laws that are fully con7 sistent with the rights specified in sub8 clause (I) of that clause; and 

9 ‘‘(II) does not have in effect laws that 

10 prohibit the exercise of any of those 

11 rights.’’. 

12 (b) PUBLICATION OF INFORMATION ON LABOR

13 STANDARDS.—The President shall publish, on a publicly 

14 available Internet website— 

15 (1) annually until the end of the 5-year period 

16 described in clause (ii) of section 502(b)(2)(G) of 

17 the Trade Act of 1974, as amended by subsection 

18 (a), a description of the continual progress made by 

19 each country toward meeting the requirements of 

20 that section; and 

21 (2) at the end of that 5-year period, a certifi22 cation with respect to whether or not each country 

23 has met such requirements. 

24 (c) CONFORMING AMENDMENTS.—Section 502(c) of 

25 the Trade Act of 1974 (19 U.S.C. 2462(c)) is amended— 


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1 (1) in paragraph (5), by striking the semicolon 

2 and inserting ‘‘; and’’; 

3 (2) in paragraph (6)(B), by striking ‘‘; and’’ 

4 and inserting a period; and 

5 (3) by striking paragraph (7). 

6 SEC. 3. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS FOR LABOR 

7 CAPACITY BUILDING. 

8 There are authorized to be appropriated to the De9 partment of Labor, for each of the fiscal years 2018 

10 through 2020, $20,000,000 for the Bureau of Inter11 national Labor Affairs, to be available to assist countries 

12 in meeting the labor obligations described in section 

13 502(b)(G)(i)(I) of the Trade Act of 1974, as amended by 

14 section 2. 

15 SEC. 4. REGULATIONS. 

16 The United States Trade Representative, in consulta17 tion with the Secretary of Labor, shall prescribe such reg18 ulations as may be necessary— 

19 (1) to provide for the receipt of public petitions 

20 from any person at any time with respect to the 

21 compliance of countries with the labor obligations 

22 described in section 502(b)(G)(i)(I) of the Trade Act 

23 of 1974, as amended by section 2; 


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1 (2) to provide for a thorough and expeditious 

2 review of such petitions by the Bureau of Inter3 national Labor Affairs of the Department of Labor; 

4 (3) to provide a written rationale in the Federal 

5 Register supporting any decisions made with respect 

6 to such petitions; and 

7 (4) to provide for the timely withdrawal, sus8 pension, or limitation of duty-free treatment, at a 

9 national or industry level, as appropriate, under title 

10 V of the Trade Act of 1974 (19 U.S.C. 2461 et seq.) 

11 for violations of the labor obligations described in 

12 section 502(b)(G)(i)(I) of the Trade Act of 1974, as 

13 amended by section 2, by a beneficiary developing 

14 country under that title. 

Æ 


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