I
103D CONGRESS
2D SESSION
H. R. 4693
To prohibit the importation of goods produced abroad with child labor, and
for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
JUNE 30, 1994
Mr. BROWN of California introduced the following bill; which was referred
jointly to the Committees on Foreign Affairs and Ways and Means
A BILL
To prohibit the importation of goods produced abroad with
child labor, and for other purposes.
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 ‘‘Child Labor Deter-
rence Act of 1994’’.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS, PURPOSE, AND POLICY.
(a) FINDINGS.—The Congress finds the following:
(1) Principle 9 of the Declaration of the Rights
of the Child proclaimed by the General Assembly of
the United Nations on November 20, 1959, states
that ‘‘. . . the child shall not be admitted to employ-
ment before an appropriate minimum age; he shall
in no case be caused or permitted to engage in any
occupation or employment which would prejudice his
health or education, or interfere with his physical,
mental, or moral development . . .’’.
(2) Article 2 of the International Labor Con-
vention No. 138 Concerning Minimum Age For Ad-
mission to Employment states that, ‘‘The minimum
age specified in pursuance of paragraph 1 of this ar-
ticle shall not be less than the age of compulsory
schooling and, in any case, shall not be less than 15
years.’’.
(3) According to the International Labor Orga-
nization, worldwide an estimated 200,000,000 chil-
dren under age 15 are working, many of them in
dangerous industries like mining and fireworks.
(4) Children under the age 15 constitute ap-
proximately 11 percent of the workforce in some
Asian countries, 17 percent in parts of Africa, and
a reported 12–26 percent in many countries in Latin
America.
(5) The number of children under age 15 who
are working, and the scale of their suffering, in-
crease every year, despite the existence of more than
20 International Labor Organization conventions on
child labor and laws in many countries which pur-
portedly prohibit the employment of under age
children.
(6) In many countries, children under the age
15 lack either the legal standing or means to protect
themselves from exploitation in the workplace.
(7) The prevalence of child labor in many devel-
oping countries is rooted in widespread poverty that
is 
attributable 
to 
unemployment 
and
underemployment, precarious incomes, low living
standards, and insufficient education and training
opportunities among adult workers.
(8) The employment of children under the age
of 15 commonly deprives the children of the oppor-
tunity for basic education and also denies gainful
employment to millions of adults.
(9) The employment of children under the age
of 15, often at pitifully low wages, undermines the
stability of families and ignores the importance of
increasing jobs, aggregated demand, and purchasing
power among adults as a catalyst to the development
of internal markets and the achievement of broad-
based, self-reliant economic development in many de-
veloping countries.
(b) PURPOSE.—The purpose of this Act is to curtail
the employment of children under age 15 in the production
of goods for export by—
(1) eliminating the role of the United States in
providing a market for foreign products made by un-
derage children;
(2) supporting activities and programs to ex-
tend primary education, rehabilitation, and alter-
native skills training to underage child workers, to
improve birth registration, and to improve the scope
and quality of statistical information and research
on the commercial exploitation of children in the
workplace; and
(3) encouraging other nations to join in a ban
on trade in products described in paragraph (1) and
to support those activities and programs described in
paragraph (2).
(c) POLICY.—It is the policy of the United States—
(1) to discourage actively the employment of
children under age 15 in the production of goods for
export or domestic consumption;
(2) to strengthen and supplement international
trading rules with a view to renouncing the use of
underage children in production as a means of com-
peting in international trade;