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103D CONGRESS

1ST SESSION H. R. 2749

To prohibit the transportation in interstate commerce or from any foreign

country into the United States of services provided by convicts or prisoners, and for other purposes.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

JULY 27, 1993

Mr. GONZALEZ submitted the following bill; which was referred jointly to the

Committees on Ways and Means and the Judiciary

A BILL

To prohibit the transportation in interstate commerce or

from any foreign country into the United States of services provided by convicts or prisoners, 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 ‘‘Convict Service Labor

5 Prohibition Act of 1993’’.

6 SEC. 2. FINDINGS AND PURPOSE.

7 (a) FINDINGS.—The Congress finds that—
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1 (1) the United States exists in a changed inter2 national economic environment;

3 (2) one part of this changed market place is an

4 increase in international trade and an advocacy by

5 many policy makers and many in the private sector

6 of so-called free trade, based on the reduction of tar7 iff and non-tariff barriers to trade, a major mani8 festation of which is the negotiation of a North

9 American Free Trade Agreement;

10 (3) although expanded trade may provide in11 creased economic opportunity for some segments of

12 the United States society, it may also cause the loss

13 of thousands of United States jobs. As United

14 States companies move their operations out of the

15 United States to take advantage of labor that costs

16 as little as one-tenth of the wages of United States

17 workers, the well-being of working people across the

18 United States is threatened;

19 (4) another part of the changed United States

20 market place is the greatly increased importance of

21 the service sector and of service-based jobs in the

22 United States;

23 (5) the United States Customs Service ruled on

24 July 15, 1992, in a case involving the sorting of cou25 pons by Mexican prisoners in a maquiladora oper-
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1 ation that existing Federal law does not prohibit the

2 importation of goods upon which services were per3 formed by forced, convict or prison labor;

4 (6) the Customs Service ruling of July 15,

5 1992, allows the performance of a wide range of

6 service activities, including laundry cleaning, auto

7 repair, appliance repair, and many others, by pris8 oners in Mexico and other countries, possibly even

9 including some assembly operations that make up so

10 much of the so-called off-shore enterprises;

11 (7) the Customs Service ruling of July 15,

12 1992, will cost thousands of additional United

13 States jobs as international trade continues to ex14 pand and U.S. companies continue to take advan15 tage of low-waged labor, including imprisoned work16 ers, against which United States workers cannot

17 compete; and

18 (8) existing Federal trade law is intended to

19 protect United States workers from the unfair for20 eign competition of work done in other countries by

21 forced, convict or prison labor; however, in light of

22 the Customs Service ruling of July 15, 1992, exist23 ing Federal law is clearly inadequate to protect

24 United States workers.
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1 (b) PURPOSE.—The purpose of this Act is to amend

2 and enhance Federal law protections for United States

3 jobs by prohibiting the importation into the United States

4 from any other country goods on which services were per5 formed by convicts or prisoners, and by establishing pen6 alties for violation of this Act.

7 SEC. 3. TRANSPORTING OR IMPORTING GOODS MADE BY

8 OR SERVICES PROVIDED BY CONVICTS OR

9 PRISONERS.

10 Section 1761 of title 18, United States Code, is

11 amended in subsection (a) by inserting after ‘‘mined,’’ the

12 following: ‘‘or on which services were performed,’’.

13 SEC. 4. FAILURE TO MARK PACKAGES MADE BY AND IDEN14 TIFY SERVICES PROVIDED BY CONVICTS OR

15 PRISONERS.

16 Section 1762(a) of title 18, United States Code, is

17 amended by inserting after ‘‘mined,’’ the following: ‘‘or on

18 which services were performed,’’.

19 SEC. 5. ENFORCEMENT OF PROHIBITION AGAINST IMPOR20 TATION OF CONVICT-MADE GOODS.

21 Section 307 of the Tariff Act of 1930 (19 U.S.C.

22 1307) is amended—

23 (1) by striking ‘‘All goods’’ and inserting ‘‘(a)

24 IN GENERAL—All goods’’;
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1 (2) in subsection (a) (as designated by para2 graph (a) of this subsection)—

3 (A) by inserting after ‘‘manufactured’’ the

4 following: ‘‘, or on which services are per5 formed,’’; and

6 (B) by striking the second sentence;

7 (3) by striking ‘‘ ‘Forced Labor,’ ’’; and

8 (4) by adding at the end the following new sub9 section:

10 ‘‘(c) PENALTIES.—

11 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—Any person who—

12 ‘‘(A) enters or imports, or attempts to

13 enter or import, goods, wares, articles, or mer14 chandise into the customs territory of the

15 United States in violation of subsection (a); and

16 ‘‘(B) knew or should have known that such

17 entry or importation, or attempted entry or im18 portation, was in violation of such subsection,

19 shall be liable to pay to the United States a

20 civil penalty.

21 ‘‘(2) AMOUNT OF PENALTY.—Any civil penalty

22 imposed under paragraph (1) shall be in an amount

23 not to exceed—

24 ‘‘(A) $10,000 for one violation;
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1 ‘‘(B) $100,000 in the case of a person pre2 viously subject to a penalty for one violation

3 under this section; or

4 ‘‘(C) $1,000,000 in the case of a person

5 previously subject to penalties for more than

6 one violation under this section.

7 ‘‘(3) REGULATIONS REQUIRED.—The Secretary

8 of the Treasury shall by regulation, within one year

9 of the date of enactment of this Act, prescribe proce10 dures for imposing penalties under this section, in11 cluding, but not limited to, prepenalty notice.’’.

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