I
105TH CONGRESS
1ST SESSION
H. R. 2678
To impose certain sanctions on countries that do not prohibit child labor.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
OCTOBER 21, 1997
Mr. SMITH OF New Jersey (for himself, Mr. HYDE, Mr. LANTOS, Mr. MORAN
of Virginia, Mr. KENNEDY of Massachusetts, Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN, Mr.
SANDERS, Mr. MILLER of California, and Mr. FALEOMAVAEGA) intro-
duced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Inter-
national Relations, and in addition to the Committee on Banking and Fi-
nancial Services, for a period to be subsequently determined by the
Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within
the jurisdiction of the committee concerned
A BILL
To impose certain sanctions on countries that do not prohibit
child labor.
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 ‘‘International Child
Labor Elimination Act of 1997’’.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
The Congress finds the following:
(1) Article 32 of the United Nations Convention
on the Rights of the Child recognizes ‘‘the right of
the child to be protected from economic exploitation
and from performing any work that is likely to be
hazardous or to interfere with the child’s education
or to be harmful to the child’s health or physical,
mental, spiritual, moral or social development.’’.
(2) Article 2 of Convention 138 of the Inter-
national Labor Organization, the Minimum Age
Convention, states that the minimum age for admis-
sion to employment or work ‘‘shall not be less than
the age of completion of compulsory schooling and,
in any case, shall not be less than 15 years.’’.
(3) Convention 29 of International Labor Orga-
nization, the Forced Labor Convention, which has
been in effect since 1930, prohibits most forms of
‘‘forced or compulsory labor’’, including all forced
labor by people under the age of 18.
(4) Although it is among the most universally
condemned of all human rights abuses, child labor is
widely practiced. The International Labor Organiza-
tion and the United Nations Children’s Fund
(UNICEF) have estimated the total number of child
workers 
to 
be 
between 
200,000,000 
and
250,000,000. More than 95 percent of those child
workers live in developing countries.
(5) The International Labor Organization has
estimated that 13.2 percent of all children 10 to 14
years of age around the world were economically ac-
tive in 1995. According to UNICEF, 75 percent of
the child laborers in the 10 to 14 age group work
6 days a week or more, and 50 percent work 9 hours
a day or more. There are no reliable figures on
workers under 10 years of age, though their num-
bers are known to be significant. Reliable child labor
statistics are not readily available, in part because
many governments in the developing world are reluc-
tant to document those activities, which are often il-
legal under domestic laws, which violate inter-
national standards, and which may be perceived as
a failure of internal public policy.
(6) Notwithstanding international and domestic
prohibitions, many children in developing countries
are forced to work as debt-bonded and slave laborers
in hazardous and exploitative industries. According
to the United Nations Working Group on Contem-
porary Forms of Slavery and the International
Labor Organization, there are tens of millions of
child slaves in the world today. Large numbers of
those slaves are involved in agricultural and domes-
tic labor, the sex industry, the carpet and textile in-
dustries, and quarrying and brick making.
(7) In many countries, children lack either the
legal standing or the means to protect themselves
from cruelty and exploitation in the workplace.
(8) The employment of children often interferes
with the opportunities of such children for basic edu-
cation. Furthermore, where it coexists with high
rates of adult unemployment, the use of child labor
likely denies gainful employment to millions of
adults.
(9) While child labor is a complex and multifac-
eted phenomenon that is tied to issues of poverty,
educational opportunity, and culture, its most abu-
sive and hazardous forms are repugnant to basic
human rights and must be eliminated.
SEC. 3. IDENTIFICATION OF FOREIGN COUNTRIES AND IN-
DUSTRIES THAT USE CHILD LABOR IN PRO-
DUCING GOODS.
(a) IDENTIFICATION
OF COUNTRIES
AND INDUS-
TRIES.—The Secretary of Labor shall, not later than 6
months after the date of the enactment of this Act, and
not later than the end of each 1-year period thereafter,
identify those foreign countries that do not prohibit child
labor, or that have laws prohibiting child labor but do not
effectively enforce them, and those industries in such
countries in which goods are produced or services provided
with the use of child labor. The Secretary may revoke the
identification of a country or an industry before the end
of the 1-year period during which the identification would
otherwise be effective, if revocation is warranted by new
information or a change in the laws or practices of a coun-
try.
(b) SANCTIONS.—The sanctions set forth in sections
4 and 5 shall apply with respect to those countries and
industries identified under subsection (a) for so long as
the identification is effective under such subsection.
(c) EXEMPTION.—The prohibition under section
4(a)(1)(B) on activities of the Export-Import Bank of the
United States, the prohibition under section 4(a)(1)(C) on
activities of the Overseas Private Investment Corporation,
and the prohibition on multilateral assistance under sec-
tion 4(a)(2) shall not apply with respect to a business en-
tity if it is established to the satisfaction of the Secretary
of Labor that no goods produced by that entity are prod-
ucts of child labor and that the business entity does not
otherwise use child labor.
approval to the issuance of any guarantee, in-
surance, extension of credit, or participation in
an extension of credit in connection with the
provision of any good or service to—
(i) the government of a foreign coun-
try identified by the Secretary of Labor
under section 3(a), or an agency of such
government; or
(ii) a business entity that is in an in-
dustry identified by the Secretary of Labor
under section 3(a) in such a country.
(C) OVERSEAS PRIVATE INVESTMENT COR-
PORATION.—(i) The Overseas Private Invest-
ment Corporation may not issue insurance, re-
insurance, or financing, or conduct other activi-
ties, in connection with an industry identified
by the Secretary of Labor under section 3(a).
(ii) Clause (i) does not affect contracts en-
tered into by the Overseas Private Investment
Corporation before the date of the enactment of
this Act.
(2) MULTILATERAL
ASSISTANCE.—The Sec-
retary of the Treasury shall instruct the United
States Executive Director of each international fi-
nancial institution to use the voice and vote of the
United States to oppose any loan or other use of the
funds of such institution to or for any industry iden-
tified by the Secretary of Labor under section 3(a).
(b) EXCEPTION.—A foreign country or an industry
identified by the Secretary of Labor under section 3(a)
may receive bilateral assistance described in subsection
(a)(1) if the President determines and certifies to the Con-
gress that it is in the vital national interest of the United
States to provide such bilateral assistance to such country
or industry, as the case may be. The President shall in-
clude in any such certification—
(1) a full and complete description of the vital
national interest of the United States that is placed
at risk if such assistance is not provided to such
country or industry; and
(2) a statement weighing the risk described in
paragraph (1) against the risk posed to the vital na-
tional interest of the United States by the failure of
such country to adopt or enforce laws prohibiting
child labor or by the use of child labor by such in-
dustry, as the case may be.
SEC. 5. REGULATIONS.
The President shall issue such regulations as are nec-
essary to carry out this Act.
SEC. 6. UNITED STATES SUPPORT FOR DEVELOPMENTAL
ALTERNATIVES 
FOR 
UNDERAGE 
CHILD
WORKERS.
There is authorized to be appropriated to the Presi-
dent the sum of $10,000,000 for each of fiscal years 1999
through 2003 for a United States contribution to the
International Labor Organization for the activities of the
International Program on the Elimination of Child Labor.
SEC. 7. DEFINITIONS.
As used in this Act:
(1) CHILD
LABOR.—The term ‘‘child labor’’
means the performance of services in exchange for
remuneration (regardless of to whom paid), subsist-
ence, goods, or services, or any combination thereof,
or under circumstances tantamount to involuntary
servitude—
(A) by persons who have not attained the
minimum age, except for—
(i) light work by persons no more
than 2 years younger than the minimum
age that is not likely to harm their health
or development and which does not preju-
dice their attendance at school, their par-
ticipation in vocational orientation or
training programs approved by the com-
petent authority in the country concerned,
or their capacity to benefit from the in-
struction received,
(ii) work on family and small-scale ag-
ricultural holdings which grow or produce
products primarily for local consumption
and do not regularly employ hired workers,
(iii) work done by persons at least 14
years of age in schools or other training in-
stitutions for general, vocational, or tech-
nical education,
(iv) work done by persons at least 14
years of age as an integral part of a pro-
gram of education, training, or occupa-
tional guidance carried out in accordance
with conditions prescribed by the com-
petent authority in the country concerned,
and
(v) participation in artistic perform-
ances pursuant to permits granted in indi-
vidual cases by the competent authority in
the country concerned; and
(B) by persons under the age of 18 if such
services would likely jeopardize the health, safe-
ty, or moral character of a young person, except
for the performance of such services by individ-
uals at least 16 years of age where—
(i) the country concerned has ex-
pressly authorized such employment by na-
tional laws or regulation;
(ii) the health, safety, and morals of
the individuals involved are fully protected;
and
(iii) the individuals involved have re-
ceived adequate specific instruction or vo-
cational training in the relevant branch of
activity.
(2) MINIMUM AGE.—The term ‘‘minimum age’’
means the age at which children complete compul-
sory schooling under the national laws of the coun-
try concerned, or the age of 15, whichever is older,
except that when a country whose economy and edu-
cational facilities are insufficiently developed has
specified, pursuant to an international agreement, a
minimum age of 14 years for a period of limited and
specifically identified duration, the term ‘‘minimum
age’’ means the age of 14 years during that period.
(3) PRODUCT OF CHILD LABOR.—A good shall
be treated as being a product of child labor if the
good—
(A) was fabricated, assembled, or proc-
essed, in whole or part,
(B) contains any part that was fabricated,
assembled, or processed, in whole or in part, or
(C) was grown, harvested, mined, quarried,
pumped, or otherwise extracted,
with child labor.
(4) BUSINESS
ENTITY.—The term ‘‘business
entity’’—
(A) means any entity that produces (in-
cluding fabricating, assembling, processing,
growing, harvesting, mining, quarrying, pump-
ing, or otherwise extracting), sells, imports, ex-
ports, or contracts for the production of, a good
in a foreign country; and
(B) includes, but is not limited to, entities
owned or controlled in whole or in part by the
government of a foreign country.
(5) FOREIGN
COUNTRY.—The term ‘‘foreign
country’’ means any foreign country and any posses-
sion or territory of a foreign country that is admin-
istered separately for customs purposes (and in-
cludes any designated zone within such country, pos-
session, or territory).