Title: Earth Act
Policy area: Foreign Trade and International Finance

Summary:
The Earth Act
This bill establishes an additional basis for excluding a foreign country from designation as a beneficiary developing country for the purposes of preferential trade treatment.
Specifically, the bill makes a country ineligible for this designation if it fails to effectively enforce its environmental laws or to fulfill its international environmental obligations. The President, when making this designation, must take into account the extent to which a country effectively enforces these laws and fulfills these obligations.

[Congressional Bills 117th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 219 Introduced in House (IH)]

<DOC>






117th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 219

  To amend the Trade Act of 1974 to exclude from eligibility for the 
generalized system of preferences any country that fails to effectively 
enforce its environmental laws or meet its international environmental 
                  obligations, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                            January 6, 2021

 Mr. Doggett introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
                      Committee on Ways and Means

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
  To amend the Trade Act of 1974 to exclude from eligibility for the 
generalized system of preferences any country that fails to effectively 
enforce its environmental laws or meet its international environmental 
                  obligations, 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 ``Earth Act''.

SEC. 2. COMPLIANCE WITH ENVIRONMENTAL LAWS AND REGULATIONS.

    Section 502 of the Trade Act of 1974 (19 U.S.C. 2462) is amended--
            (1) in subsection (b)(2)--
                    (A) by inserting after subparagraph (H) the 
                following new subparagraph:
                    ``(I) Such country fails to effectively enforce its 
                environmental laws, regulations, or other measures, or 
                to fulfill its international environmental obligations, 
                including as such obligations relate to public 
                health.''; and
                    (B) in the matter following subparagraph (I) (as 
                added by subparagraph (A))--
                            (i) by striking ``and (H)'' and inserting 
                        ``(H)''; and
                            (ii) by striking ``shall not prevent'' and 
                        inserting ``, and (I) shall not prevent''; and
            (2) in subsection (c)--
                    (A) in paragraph (6)(B), by striking ``and'' at the 
                end;
                    (B) in paragraph (7), by striking the period at the 
                end and inserting ``; and''; and
                    (C) by adding at the end the following new 
                paragraph:
            ``(8) the extent to which such country effectively enforces 
        its environmental laws, regulations, and other measures, and 
        fulfills its international environmental obligations, including 
        as such obligations relate to public health.''.
                                 <all>