Title: Allowing for the Safe Return of Rohingyas to Burma Act of 2019
Policy area: Foreign Trade and International Finance

Summary:
Allowing for the Safe Return of Rohingyas to Burma Act of 2019
This bill requires the President to withdraw duty-free treatment from Burma (Myanmar) and prohibits the President from reinstating such treatment without certifying that Burma (1) allows the safe, voluntary, and dignified return of Rohingya refugees; (2) has taken steps to provide Burmese citizenship to such Rohingya refugees; and (3) has addressed the root causes of the crisis in the Rakhine State.

[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 4392 Introduced in House (IH)]

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116th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 4392

 To direct the President to withdraw the application of the duty-free 
    treatment with respect to Burma under the Generalized System of 
              Preferences program, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                           September 18, 2019

  Mr. Sherman (for himself and Mrs. Wagner) introduced the following 
      bill; which was referred to the Committee on Ways and Means

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To direct the President to withdraw the application of the duty-free 
    treatment with respect to Burma under the Generalized System of 
              Preferences program, and for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Allowing for the Safe Return of 
Rohingyas to Burma Act of 2019''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress finds the following:
            (1) Since August 2017, the Burmese military, the Tatmadaw, 
        has engaged in a brutal crackdown on the Rohingya population in 
        the northern Rakhine state of Burma (formerly Myanmar).
            (2) Before the 2017 crisis, an estimated 1,000,000 Rohingya 
        people lived in the Rakhine state.
            (3) As a result of the brutal crackdown of 2017, 740,000 
        Rohingyas have fled to Bangladesh and another 127,000 Rohingya 
        fled to camps for internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the 
        central Rakhine state.
            (4) Bangladesh was already enduring a humanitarian crisis 
        as a result of approximately 287,000 Rohingya refugees fleeing 
        Burma during earlier crackdowns by the Burmese military in 2012 
        and 2016.
            (5) In March 2019, the United Nations Office for the 
        Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs estimated there were 
        909,000 registered Rohingya in Bangladeshi refugee camps.
            (6) On March 5, 2019, the United States Agency for 
        International Development reported that the United States has 
        contributed more than $494,000,000 to Bangladesh since August 
        2017 in order to help Bangladesh cope with the influx of 
        Rohingya refugees.
            (7) The U.S. Secretary of State has called the Burmese 
        security forces attacks on the Rohingya an ``ethnic cleansing'' 
        but has yet to recognize them as a crime against humanity or 
        genocide.
            (8) On December 13, 2018, the United States House of 
        Representatives passed House Resolution 1091, which expressed 
        the sense of the House that ``the atrocities committed against 
        the Rohingya by the Burmese military and security forces since 
        August 2017 constitute crimes against humanity and genocide'' 
        and called upon the Secretary of State to review the available 
        evidence and make a similar determination.
            (9) The United Nations Human Rights Council's Independent 
        International Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar (the Mission) 
        concluded in August 2018 and August 2019 reports that ``there 
        is sufficient information to warrant the investigation and 
        prosecution'' of Tatmadaw officials to determine their 
        ``liability for genocide'' and also found that a ``pervasive 
        culture of impunity at the domestic level,'' which led the 
        Mission to conclude that ``the impetus for accountability must 
        come from the international community''.
            (10) The ability of Rohingyas to leave Bangladesh to return 
        home is impeded by many factors, not least of which: the lack 
        of Burmese citizenship for the Rohingya minority, that the 
        homes of the Rohingya were largely destroyed in the 2017 
        violence, and that Rohingya still fear the ongoing violence due 
        to the civil war and military officers who act with impunity 
        against the local civilian population.
            (11) In 2016, after a 27-year suspension period, the 
        Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) program for Burma was 
        re-instated, and Burma was designated as a least-developed 
        beneficiary developing country under the program.
            (12) Just one year after having the GSP program reinstated, 
        Burma's GSP-eligible exports to the United States were valued 
        at $93,900,000, the second highest value for least-developed 
        beneficiary developing countries after Cambodia.

SEC. 3. WITHDRAWAL OF DESIGNATION OF BURMA UNDER THE GENERALIZED SYSTEM 
              OF PREFERENCES PROGRAM.

    (a) In General.--Not later than 90 days after the date of the 
enactment of this Act, the President shall withdraw the application of 
the duty-free treatment under title V of the Trade Act of 1974 (19 
U.S.C. 2461 et seq.) with respect to Burma.
    (b) Certification.--The President may reinstate the application of 
duty-free treatment under title V of the Trade Act of 1974 (19 U.S.C. 
2461 et seq.) with respect to Burma after the date on which the 
authority of subsection (a) is exercised only if the President submits 
to the appropriate congressional committees a certification that 
contains a determination of the President that the Government of 
Burma--
            (1) allows for the safe, voluntary, and dignified return of 
        Rohingya refugees;
            (2) has taken the necessary steps to provide Burmese 
        citizenship to such Rohingya refugees; and
            (3) has addressed the root causes of the crisis in Rakhine 
        State.

SEC. 4. APPROPRIATE CONGRESSIONAL COMMITTEES DEFINED.

    In this Act, the term ``appropriate congressional committees'' 
means--
            (1) the congressional defense committees (as such term is 
        defined in section 101 of title 10, United States Code);
            (2) the Committee on Foreign Affairs, the Permanent Select 
        Committee on Intelligence, and the Committee on Ways and Means 
        of the House of Representatives; and
            (3) the Committee on Foreign Relations, the Select 
        Committee on Intelligence, and the Committee on Finance of the 
        Senate.
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