I
104TH CONGRESS
2D SESSION
H. R. 4291
To provide for the multilateral negotiation of Western Hemisphere environ-
mental, labor, and agricultural standards, to implement as United States
negotiating objectives in any free trade area negotiations pursuant to
the Free Trade Agreement for the Americas certain threshold protections
regarding enforceable worker rights, agricultural standards, and environ-
mental quality, and to implement a corresponding, comprehensive multi-
lateral dispute resolution mechanism to investigate, adjudicate, and
render binding, enforceable judgments against any unfair trade practices
arising within the Western Hemisphere free trade area, including those
involving the systematic denial or practical nullification of certain thresh-
old protections of worker rights, agricultural standards, and environ-
mental quality.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
SEPTEMBER 28, 1996
Mr. BROWN of California introduced the following bill; which was referred to
the Committee on Ways and Means
A BILL
To provide for the multilateral negotiation of Western Hemi-
sphere environmental, labor, and agricultural standards,
to implement as United States negotiating objectives in
any free trade area negotiations pursuant to the Free
Trade Agreement for the Americas certain threshold pro-
tections regarding enforceable worker rights, agricultural
standards, and environmental quality, and to implement
a corresponding, comprehensive multilateral dispute reso-
lution mechanism to investigate, adjudicate, and render
binding, enforceable judgments against any unfair trade
practices arising within the Western Hemisphere free
trade area, including those involving the systematic de-
nial or practical nullification of certain threshold protec-
tions of worker rights, agricultural standards, and envi-
ronmental quality.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Fair International
Standards in Trade for the Americas Act of 1995’’.
SEC. 2. PRINCIPAL NEGOTIATING OBJECTIVES OF THE
UNITED STATES.
The purposes, policies, and objectives that are appli-
cable with respect to any free-trade area trade agreement
negotiated under the authority of such title I in further-
ance of the Free Trade Agreement for the Americas, as
proposed at the Summit of the Americas that was held
in December, 1994, in Miami, Florida with any country
in the Western Hemisphere outside North America (here-
after in this Act referred to as the ‘‘FTAA’’) include the
achievement of the overall and principal trade negotiating
objectives of the United States set forth in section 1101
of the Omnibus Trade and Competitiveness Act of 1988,
and the following principal negotiating objectives:
(1) WORKER
RIGHTS
AND
STANDARDS
AND
PROTECTION.—With a view to establishing open, ex-
panding, mutually beneficial trade among the coun-
tries of the Western Hemisphere, to spreading the
benefits of such trade as widely as possible, to pro-
tecting citizens interests, and to enhancing respect
for human rights throughout the Western Hemi-
sphere, the principal negotiating objectives of the
United States with respect to worker rights and
standards, and the protection thereof, in the conduct
of international trade, commerce, and finance are—
(A) to ensure freedom of association and
to affirm the vital role that free and independ-
ent unions play in democratic governance;
(B) to ensure the rights of working people
to organize, to bargain collectively, and to
strike, and to ensure the right of workers’ rep-
resentatives to legal protection in the free exer-
cise of their duties and fundamental human
rights;
(C) to establish a minimum age for the
employment of children at 14 years if the em-
ployment will not result in the neglect of their
education and will not harm their health and
well-being;
(D) to ensure the right to health at the
workplace and to a healthy working environ-
ment, including freedom from exposure to toxic
substances;
(E) to guarantee the right of all workers to
equal protection, including freedom from dis-
crimination in wages or working conditions, re-
gardless of their nationality, race, religion, age,
or sex; and
(F) to guarantee humane standards of
wages and hours of work that take into account
different levels of national economic develop-
ment, but provide for improvement concurrently
with gains in productivity.
(2) ENVIRONMENTAL
QUALITY
AND
PROTEC-
TION.—In recognition of the shared responsibility of
the countries of the Western Hemisphere as stew-
ards responsible for, and their common interest in,
preserving and sustaining the Western Hemisphere’s
natural habitat and resources over time, the prin-
cipal negotiating objectives of the United States with
respect to environmental quality and protection
are—
(A) the protection of environmental quality
and of the integrity of ecosystems, as well as
the maintenance of scarce biological and phys-
ical resources, in the conduct of international
trade, commerce, and finance;
(B) the establishment of a process for the
full and public disclosure of the kinds, quan-
tities, and risks associated with toxic chemical
and hazardous substance discharges into the
air, water, and land;
(C) the prevention of the export of toxic
and hazardous substances and products, such
as carcinogens and unsafe drugs, that are
banned in the country of origin;
(D) the prevention of the export of prod-
ucts (except to the extent of remediation or re-
patriation contracts that already exist) manu-
factured, extracted, harvested, or grown under
environmental conditions or workplace safety
and health conditions that undermine counter-
part standards, particularly those applicable to
the counterpart industry in the importing coun-
try or the counterpart standards, in general, in
the importing country; and
(E) to require that industries within their
national borders reduce the amount and toxicity
of hazardous substances that they use, mini-
mize the amount and toxicity of wastes they
generate, and demonstrate publicly their use of
best available technology for pollution abate-
ment in their production processes.
(3) UNFAIR
TRADE
PRACTICES.—In acknowl-
edging different, evolving comparative advantages
among trading nations, but with a view to distin-
guishing between acceptable and unacceptable means
of competition among trading nations, the principal
negotiating objectives of the United States with re-
spect to unfair trade practices shall include the
adoption, as a principle, and in enforcement action
that the systematic denial or practical nullification
of the protections accorded worker rights and stand-
ards and environmental quality (within the context
of paragraphs (1) and (2)) as a means for any coun-
try or its industries to gain competitive advantage
in international trade, commerce, and finance is an
actionable unfair trade practice.
(4) COMPREHENSIVE DISPUTE RESOLUTION.—
The principal negotiating objectives of the United
States are to achieve a process for the settlement of
disputes that arise between or among the signatories
with respect to unfair trade practices, including not
only those involving commonly identified unfair
trade barriers, but unfair practices, within the con-
text of the negotiating objectives listed in para-
graphs (1), (2), and (3) involving the systematic de-
nial or practical nullification of worker rights and
standards and failure to apply or enforce standards
relating to environmental quality or protection, re-
sulting in distortions to international trade, com-
merce, and finance. Such a process shall include—
(A) notification by each signatory nation to
the other signatories regarding changes in law
or practice that will materially affect the agree-
ment;
(B) provision, on a sequential basis and
subject to reasonable time limits, for consulta-
tion between or among signatories, for medi-
ation, and, if necessary, for binding arbitration;
(C) the establishment of a multilateral
commission, with authority to investigate, adju-
dicate, issue binding judgments, and take en-
forcement action, in a timely manner regarding
the issues in dispute pursuant to subparagraph
(B)—
(i) that consists of equal numbers of
experts from the signatory nations (with
United States experts being subject to the
advice and consent of the United States
Senate), and
(ii) the chairmanship of which will be
filled by individuals who—
(I) are citizens of the respective
signatories,
(II) serve on a rotational basis
among the signatories for 2-year
terms, except that no individual may
serve in such office for more than one
term, and
(III) are appointed to such office
by the respective chief executive offi-
cers of the signatories (and any chair-
person appointed from the United
States is subject to the advice and
consent of the United States);
(D) provision for the multilateral commis-
sion, in its proceedings and deliberations, to
consult with a wide array of representative or-
ganizations, in addition to government agencies,
with expertise in labor, environmental, agricul-
tural, and scientific matters in each of the sig-
natory nations;
(E) provision for the multilateral commis-
sion to enforce its judgments, as appropriate,
by authorizing an aggrieved signatory nation
to—
(i) suspend, withdraw, or prevent the
application of the benefits of trade agree-
ment concessions to carry out any trade
agreement entered into pursuant to the
FTAA with the offending signatory nation,
(ii) impose proportionate duties on
specific products, companies, or industries,
or other offsetting import restrictions on
the goods of, and offsetting fees or restric-
tions on the services of, the offending sig-
natory nation for such time as the multi-
lateral commission determines, or
(iii) enter into binding agreements
with the offending signatory nation that
commit such nation to—
(I) eliminate, or phase out, the
act, policy, or practice that constitutes
an unfair trade practice and that is
the subject of the action to be taken
under clause (i) or (ii),
(II) eliminate any burden or re-
striction 
on 
Western 
Hemisphere
trade, as defined in the FTAA, result-
ing from such unfair trade practice,
(III) provide the aggrieved signa-
tory nation with compensatory trade
benefits that are satisfactory to the
multilateral commission and meet the
requirements of subparagraph (F), or
(IV) enter into debt-for-science
exchanges, or similar arrangements,
as appropriate, that are satisfactory
to the multilateral commission and
that 
serve, 
as 
potential 
funding
sources for remedies recommended
under paragraph (5), to ameliorate
the issues in dispute pursuant to sub-
paragraph (B);
(F) provision that any binding agreement
described in subparagraph (E)(iii)(III) provide
compensatory trade benefits (including, but not
limited to, appropriate fees on trans-border
movements of products, services, or capital)
that benefit the economic sector which includes
the domestic industry in the aggrieved signatory