IV 
107TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. RES. 604
Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that the United States 
should adopt a global strategy to respond to the current coffee crisis, 
and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
NOVEMBER 13, 2002
Mr. FARR of California (for himself, Mr. BALLENGER, Mr. GILMAN, Ms. 
EDDIE BERNICE JOHNSON of Texas, Mr. MCGOVERN, Ms. LEE, Mr. 
GEORGE MILLER of California, Ms. KILPATRICK, Mr. BROWN of Ohio, 
and Mr. DELAHUNT) submitted the following resolution; which was re-
ferred to the Committee on International Relations 
RESOLUTION 
Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that 
the United States should adopt a global strategy to re-
spond to the current coffee crisis, and for other purposes.
Whereas since 1997 the price of coffee has declined nearly 70 
percent on the world market and has recently reached its 
lowest level in a century; 
Whereas the collapse of coffee prices has resulted in a wide-
spread humanitarian crisis for 25,000,000 coffee growers 
and for more than 50 developing countries where coffee 
is a critical source of rural employment and foreign ex-
change earnings;
•HRES 604 IH 
Whereas, according to a recent World Bank report, 600,000 
permanent and temporary coffee workers in Central 
America have been left unemployed in the last two years; 
Whereas the World Bank has referred to the coffee crisis as 
‘‘the silent Mitch’’, equating the impact of record-low cof-
fee prices upon Central American countries with the 
damage done to such countries by Hurricane Mitch in 
1998; 
Whereas 6 of 14 immigrants who died in the Arizona desert 
in May 2001 were small coffee farmers from Veracruz, 
Mexico; 
Whereas The Washington Post, The New York Times, and 
The Wall Street Journal report that cultivation of illicit 
crops such as coca and opium poppy is increasing in tra-
ditional coffee-growing countries, such as Colombia and 
Peru, which have been adversely affected by low inter-
national coffee prices; 
Whereas the economies of some of the poorest countries in 
the world, particularly those in Africa, are highly depend-
ent on trade in coffee; 
Whereas coffee accounts for approximately 80 percent of ex-
port revenues for Burundi, 54 percent of export revenues 
for Ethiopia, 34 percent of export revenues for Uganda, 
and 31 percent of export revenues for Rwanda; 
Whereas, according to the Oxfam International Report 
‘‘Mugged: Poverty in your Coffee Cup’’, in the Dak Lak 
province of Vietnam, one of the lowest-cost coffee pro-
ducers in the world, the price farmers receive for their 
product covers as little as 60 percent of their costs of 
production and the income derived by the worst-off farm-
•HRES 604 IH 
ers in that region is categorized as ‘‘pre-starvation’’ in-
come; 
Whereas on February 1, 2002, the International Coffee Orga-
nization (ICO) passed Resolution 407; 
Whereas Resolution 407 calls for exporting member countries 
to observe minimum standards for exportable coffee and 
provide for the issuance of ICO certificates of origin ac-
cording to those standards; 
Whereas ICO Resolution 407 calls on importing member 
countries to ‘‘make their best endeavors to support the 
objectives of the programme’’; 
Whereas both the Specialty Coffee Association of America 
(SCAA) and the National Coffee Association (NCA) sup-
port ICO Resolution 407 and have publicly advocated for 
the United States to rejoin the International Coffee Or-
ganization; 
Whereas on July 24, 2002, the Subcommittee on the Western 
Hemisphere of the Committee on International Relations 
of the House of Representatives held a hearing on the 
coffee crisis in the Western Hemisphere; 
Whereas the United States Agency for International Develop-
ment (USAID) has already established coffee sector as-
sistance programs for Colombia, Bolivia, the Dominican 
Republic, East Timor, El Salvador, Ethiopia, Guatemala, 
Haiti, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru, Rwanda, 
Tanzania, and Uganda; and 
Whereas the report accompanying the Foreign Operations, 
Export Financing, and Related Programs Appropriations 
Bill, 2003 (House Report 107–663), highlights the coffee 
price crisis as a global issue and ‘‘urges USAID to focus 
its rural development and relief programs on regions se-
•HRES 604 IH 
verely affected by the coffee crisis, especially in Colom-
bia’’: Now, therefore, be it
Resolved, That—
(1) it is the sense of the House of Representa-
tives that—
(A) the United States should adopt a glob-
al strategy to respond to the coffee crisis with 
coordinated activities in Latin America, Africa, 
and Asia to address the short-term humani-
tarian needs and long-term rural development 
needs of countries adversely affected by the col-
lapse of coffee prices; and 
(B) the President should explore measures 
to support and complement multilateral efforts 
to respond to the global coffee crisis; and 
(2) the House of Representatives urges private 
sector coffee buyers and roasters to work with the 
United States Government to find a solution to the 
crisis which is economically, socially, and environ-
mentally sustainable for all interested parties, and 
that will address the fundamental problem of over-
supply in the world coffee market.
Æ