House Passes DR-CAFTA Implementation Bill; Bill to Go to President for Signature (Part I)

This is Part I of a multi-part series of summaries on the DR-CAFTA Implementation Act (Act). See future issues of ITT for additional parts.

DR-CAFTA Implementation Bill Now Goes to the President for Signature

On July 28, 2005, the Senate also passed H.R. 3045, clearing the measure for the President.

Under Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) procedures, neither the House nor the Senate were allowed to amend the DR-CAFTA implementation bill. As a result, the bills passed by the House and Senate are identical, and there is no need for a conference to reconcile different versions.

(See ITT's Online Archives or 07/05/05 news, 05070505, for BP summary on the Senate's June 30, 2005 passage of S. 1307, the Senate's DR-CAFTA implementation bill.))

The DR-CAFTA implementation bill will now go to the President, who has said that he will sign the measure.

According to a Congressional Research Service summary, H.R. 3045 would:

Approve DR-CAFTA. Approve the Dominican Republic-Central America-U.S.-Free Trade Agreement (DR-CAFTA¹) entered into with the Governments of Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua and the statement of administrative action proposed to implement the DR-CAFTA, both submitted to Congress;

Authorize Presidential proclamation to implement DR-CAFTA. Authorize the President to proclaim such actions, and other appropriate officers of the U.S. Government to issue such regulations, as may be necessary to ensure appropriate implementation of any provision of this Act that takes effect on the date the DR-CAFTA enters into force;

Provide for tariff modifications, etc. Provide for (1) administration of dispute settlement proceedings; (2) arbitration of claims against the U.S. covered by the DR-CAFTA; and (3) specified tariff modifications;

Assess safeguard duties. Direct the Secretary of the Treasury, in certain circumstances, to assess additional duties, calculated according to a specified formula, on agriculture safeguard goods included in the Schedule of the U.S. to the DR-CAFTA that qualify as an originating good under this Act. Except from additional duties any good subject to import relief under this Act or to any action to facilitate positive adjustment to import competition under the Trade Act of 1974;

Prescribe requirements for textile and apparel rules of origin, etc. Prescribe requirements for (partial list):

a) enforcement of textile and apparel rules of origin;

b) retroactive application for certain liquidations and reliquidations of textile or apparel goods (to January 1, 2004);

c) actions for relief from imports benefiting from the DR-CAFTA;

d) certain textile and apparel safeguard measures;

e) presidential actions with regard to International Trade Commission findings on whether imports of articles from a DR-CAFTA country are a substantial cause of serious injury or threat to U.S. articles and industries; and

f) periodic presidential reports to Congress on the implementation of the DR-CAFTA, and periodic meetings between the Secretary of Labor and the labor ministers of the DR-CAFTA countries on labor obligations and labor capacity-building; and

Make DR-CAFTA country products and services eligible for U.S. government procurement. Amend the Trade Agreements Act of 1979 to make products or services of any foreign country or instrumentality that is a party to the DR-CAFTA eligible for U.S. government procurement.

¹ DR-CAFTA is sometimes referred to as CAFTA-DR or CAFTA by U.S. government officials and documents.

H.R. 3045 available at http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=109_cong_bills&docid=f:h3045rh.txt.pdf.