I

107TH CONGRESS

1ST SESSION H. R. 1973

To provide for review in the Court of International Trade of certain determinations of binational panels under the North American Free Trade

Agreement.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

MAY 23, 2001

Mr. NORWOOD introduced the following bill; which was referred to the

Committee on Ways and Means

A BILL

To provide for review in the Court of International Trade

of certain determinations of binational panels under the

North American Free Trade Agreement.

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 ‘‘Integrity of the United

5 States Courts Act of 2001’’.

6 SEC. 2. JUDICIAL REVIEW OF BINATIONAL PANEL DECI7 SIONS.

8 (a) IN GENERAL.—Subtitle A of title IV of the North

9 American Free Trade Agreement Implementation Act (19
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1 U.S.C. 3431 et seq.) is amended by inserting after section

2 404 the following new section:

3 ‘‘SEC. 404A. REVIEW OF BINATIONAL PANEL DETERMINA4 TIONS.

5 ‘‘(a) BASIS FOR REVIEW IN COURT OF INTER6 NATIONAL TRADE.—If, within 30 days after publication

7 in the Federal Register of notice that a binational panel

8 has issued a determination following a review under article

9 1904 of a decision of a competent investigating authority

10 in the United States, a party or person within the meaning

11 of paragraph 5 of article 1904 alleges that—

12 ‘‘(1)(A) a member of a panel was guilty of a

13 gross misconduct, bias, or a serious conflict of inter14 est, or otherwise materially violated the rules of con15 duct,

16 ‘‘(B) the panel seriously departed from a funda17 mental rule of procedure, or

18 ‘‘(C) the panel manifestly exceeded its powers,

19 authority, or jurisdiction set out in article 1904, as

20 in failing to apply the appropriate standard of re21 view, and

22 ‘‘(2) any of the actions described in paragraph

23 (1) has materially affected the panel’s decision and

24 threatens the integrity of the binational panel review

25 process,
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1 then such party or person may file an appeal with the

2 United States Court of International Trade, seeking re3 view of the binational panel determination, pursuant to

4 section 516A of the Tariff Act of 1930.

5 ‘‘(b) DECISIONS OF THE COURT.—In any appeal filed

6 under subsection (a) for review of a binational panel deter7 mination, the Court of International Trade shall, after ex8 amining the legal and factual analysis underlying the find9 ings and conclusions of the panel’s decision, determine

10 whether any of the actions described in subsection (a)(1)

11 has been established. If the court finds that any of those

12 actions has been established, the court shall vacate the

13 original panel decision and enter judgment accordingly. If

14 the actions are not established, the court shall affirm the

15 original binational panel decision. Decisions of the Court

16 of International Trade under this section shall be binding

17 on the parties with respect to the matters between the par18 ties that were before the panel.

19 ‘‘(c) EXCLUSIVE JURISDICTION.—If a party or per20 son within the meaning of paragraph 5 of article 1904

21 timely files a notice of appeal to the Court of International

22 Trade pursuant to this section, then jurisdiction exclu23 sively resides with the United States Court of Inter24 national Trade, and such determinations are not subject
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1 to review by an extraordinary challenge committee under

2 paragraph 13 of article 1904.

3 ‘‘(d) APPLICABILITY.—This section applies to all

4 goods from NAFTA countries which were subject to an

5 antidumping duty or countervailing duty determination of

6 a competent investigating authority in the United

7 States.’’.

8 (b) CONFORMING AMENDMENT.—The table of con9 tents of the North American Free Trade Implementation

10 Act is amended by inserting after the item relating to sec11 tion 404 the following:

‘‘Sec. 404A. Review of binational panel determinations.’’.

12 SEC. 3. JURISDICTION OF THE COURT OF INTERNATIONAL

13 TRADE.

14 Section 516A of the Tariff Act of 1930 (19 U.S.C.

15 1516a) is amended—

16 (1) in subsection (a)(2)—

17 (A) in subparagraph (A)(i)(I), by striking

18 ‘‘or (viii)’’ and inserting ‘‘(viii), or (ix)’’; and

19 (B) in subparagraph (B), by adding at the

20 end the following:

21 ‘‘(ix) A final determination of a bina22 tional panel convened pursuant to article

23 1904 of the NAFTA.’’;

24 (2) in subsection (a)(5), in the matter pre25 ceding subparagraph (A), by inserting ‘‘(other than
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1 a determination described in subsection

2 (g)(3)(A)(vii))’’ after ‘‘apply’’; and

3 (3) in subsection (g)(3)(A)—

4 (A) in clause (v), by striking ‘‘or’’ at the

5 end;

6 (B) in clause (vi), by striking the period

7 and inserting ‘‘, or’’; and

8 (C) by adding at the end the following:

9 ‘‘(vii) a determination of which either

10 a party or person within the meaning of

11 paragraph 5 of article 1904 of the NAFTA

12 has requested review pursuant to section

13 404A of the North American Free Trade

14 Agreement Implementation Act.’’.

15 SEC. 4. EFFECTIVE DATE.

16 The amendments made by this Act shall apply to any

17 final determination of a binational panel convened pursu18 ant to article 1904 of the North American Free Trade

19 Agreement, notice of which is published in the Federal

20 Register on or after the date of the enactment of this Act.

21 SEC. 5. APPLICABILITY TO GOODS FROM A NAFTA COUN22 TRY.

23 Pursuant to section 408 of the North American Free

24 Trade Agreement Implementation Act (19 U.S.C. 3438),

25 the amendments made by this Act shall apply with respect
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1 to goods from a NAFTA country (as defined in section

2 2(4) of that Act (19 U.S.C. 3301(4))).

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