Act for the Amazon Act

I 116TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION H. R. 4263 To prohibit importation of certain products of Brazil, to prohibit certain assistance to Brazil, and to prohibit negotiations to enter into a free trade agreement with Brazil. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES SEPTEMBER 10, 2019 Mr. DEFAZIO (for himself, Mr. MICHAEL F. DOYLE of Pennsylvania, Ms. NORTON, Ms. ESHOO, Ms. HILL of California, Ms. PINGREE, Mr. COHEN, Mr. HASTINGS, Ms. SCHAKOWSKY, Mr. THOMPSON of California, Mr. GRIJALVA, Ms. TLAIB, Mr. HUFFMAN, and Mr. LOWENTHAL) intro- duced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs, and in addition to the Committee on Ways and Means, for a pe- riod to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for con- sideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the com- mittee concerned A BILL To prohibit importation of certain products of Brazil, to prohibit certain assistance to Brazil, and to prohibit ne- gotiations to enter into a free trade agreement with Brazil. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Act for the Amazon 4 Act’’. 5 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:57 Sep 11, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H4263.IH H4263 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 2 •HR 4263 IH SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 1 Congress finds the following: 2 (1) Two-thirds of the Amazon rainforest is lo- 3 cated in Brazil’s borders. 4 (2) The Amazon rainforest is commonly re- 5 ferred to as the ‘‘lungs of the Earth’’. 6 (3) The Amazon rainforest contains upwards of 7 100 billion metric tons of sequestered carbon, help- 8 ing to stabilize the Earth’s climate. 9 (4) The Amazon rainforest is home to 10 per- 10 cent of the Earth’s biodiversity. 11 (5) More forest has been cleared in Brazil in 12 the summer 2019 alone than in the last three years 13 combined. 14 (6) Brazilian satellites indicate that about three 15 football fields worth of trees in the Amazon 16 rainforest located in Brazil were felled every minute 17 in July 2019. 18 (7) As of August 26, 2019, there were more 19 than 41,000 fires burning in the Amazon rainforest. 20 (8) The National Institute for Space Research 21 (INPE) reports this to be a 78-percent increase 22 from fires during the same period in 2018. 23 (9) These fires have released the equivalent of 24 228 megatons of carbon so far this year. 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:57 Sep 11, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H4263.IH H4263 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 3 •HR 4263 IH (10) Natural fires in the Amazon rainforest are 1 rare, and the majority of fires are human-caused to 2 deforest land for agriculture and mining. 3 (11) Cattle ranching leads to approximately 80 4 percent of deforestation of the Amazon rainforest. 5 (12) Soy cultivation has led to the destruction 6 of 40,000 square miles of native forests in Brazil 7 since 2008. 8 (13) Deforestation is taking place illegally in 9 some of the more than 305 indigenous territories in 10 Brazil. 11 (14) Brazilian President Bolsonaro has imple- 12 mented policies that violate the collective and indi- 13 vidual rights of indigenous peoples. 14 (15) Brazil’s National Indigenous Movement 15 has called for an international boycott of commod- 16 ities that are in conflict with indigenous territories. 17 (16) President Bolsonaro has promised to scale 18 back enforcement of environmental laws. 19 (17) President Bolsonaro blames nongovern- 20 mental organizations for the fires without evidence. 21 (18) President Bolsonaro has rejected deforest- 22 ation data from his own government agency, the 23 INPE, as false and later fired the INPE director for 24 rebutting his criticisms. 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:57 Sep 11, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H4263.IH H4263 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 4 •HR 4263 IH (19) Under President Bolsonaro’s administra- 1 tion, deforestation has spiked by more than 50 per- 2 cent. 3 (20) President Bolsonaro’s chief of staff said 4 that G7 aid ‘‘would be put to better use reforesting 5 Europe’’. 6 (21) Brazil’s Environment Minister has inhib- 7 ited the environmental enforcement agencies from 8 investigating environmental crimes. 9 (22) Brazil’s Environment Minister is a con- 10 victed environmental criminal. 11 (23) Brazilian government enforcement actions, 12 including fines and the confiscation and destruction 13 of illegal equipment, has significantly decreased 14 under the Bolsonaro administration. 15 (24) The continued lack of enforcement actions 16 against deforestation tactics and unwillingness to ag- 17 gressively fight the fires in the Amazon rainforest by 18 the Government of Brazil poses a direct threat to 19 United States interests and national security. 20 (25) The destruction of the Amazon rainforest 21 poses serious threats to our ecosystem, potentially 22 significantly affecting agricultural production, in- 23 creasing extreme weather events, and more. 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:57 Sep 11, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H4263.IH H4263 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 5 •HR 4263 IH (26) The United States is Brazil’s third largest 1 export market. 2 (27) Brazilian soy and cattle exports accounted 3 for more than $31 billion and $5 billion, respec- 4 tively, in 2017, leading the world in exports of both 5 commodities. 6 SEC. 3. PROHIBITION ON IMPORTATION OF PRODUCTS OF 7 BRAZIL. 8 (a) IN GENERAL.—Beginning on the date of the en- 9 actment of this Act, the President shall exercise all powers 10 granted by the International Emergency Economic Powers 11 Act (50 U.S.C. 1701 et seq.) (except that the require- 12 ments of section 202 of such Act (50 U.S.C. 1701) shall 13 not apply) to the extent necessary to prohibit the importa- 14 tion of any products described in subsection (b) that are 15 products of Brazil. 16 (b) PRODUCTS DESCRIBED.—The products described 17 in this subsection are the following: 18 (1) Beef products classified under heading 0201 19 of the HTS. 20 (2) Soy products classified under— 21 (A) heading 1201, 1507, or 2304 of the 22 HTS; or 23 (B) subheading 1208.10.00, 1517.90.10, 24 1517.90.90, or 2008.99.6100 of the HTS. 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:57 Sep 11, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H4263.IH H4263 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 6 •HR 4263 IH (3) Leather and hide products classified under 1 heading 4104 of the HTS. 2 (4) Timber products classified under heading 3 4403 of the HTS. 4 (5) Sugar products classified under heading 5 1701 of the HTS. 6 (6) Pulp and paper products classified under 7 chapter 47 or 48 of the HTS. 8 (7) Tobacco products classified under chapter 9 24 of the HTS. 10 (8) Corn products classified under— 11 (A) heading 1005 of the HTS; or 12 (B) subheading 0709.99.45, 0710.40.00, 13 0712.90.8, 1004.23.00, 1102.20.00, 14 1103.13.00, 1108.12.00, 1515.21.00, 15 1901.90.91, 1905.90.90, 2004.90.85, 16 2005.80.00, 2302.10.00, 2303.10.00, 17 2303.10.00, 2306.90.01, 3505.10.00, or 18 9902.01.01 of the HTS. 19 (9) Crude petroleum, natural gas, and petro- 20 leum refinery products classified under heading 21 2707, 2709, 2710, 2711, or 2712 of the HTS. 22 (c) HTS DEFINED.—In this section, the term 23 ‘‘HTS’’ means the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the 24 United States. 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:57 Sep 11, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H4263.IH H4263 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 7 •HR 4263 IH SEC. 4. PROHIBITION ON ASSISTANCE TO BRAZIL. 1 (a) IN GENERAL.—Beginning on the date of the en- 2 actment of this Act, the President may not provide assist- 3 ance described in subsection (b) to Brazil. 4 (b) ASSISTANCE DESCRIBED.—The assistance de- 5 scribed in this subsection is the following: 6 (1) Military assistance, including— 7 (A) military-to-military cooperation and ex- 8 ercises; 9 (B) support for military innovation and 10 modernization, including the transfer of surplus 11 military equipment or technology; and 12 (C) military education and exchanges. 13 (2) Security assistance. 14 SEC. 5. PROHIBITION ON NEGOTIATIONS TO ENTER INTO A 15 FREE TRADE AGREEMENT WITH BRAZIL. 16 (a) SENSE OF CONGRESS.—It is the sense of Con- 17 gress that the Government of Brazil’s failure to aggres- 18 sively fight the fires in the Amazon rainforest and defor- 19 estation tactics more generally provide yet another jus- 20 tification as to why the United States should not carry 21 out negotiations to enter into a free trade agreement with 22 Brazil. 23 (b) PROHIBITION.—The Office of the United States 24 Trade Representative and any other Federal department 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:57 Sep 11, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H4263.IH H4263 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 8 •HR 4263 IH or agency may not carry out negotiations to enter into 1 a free trade agreement with Brazil. 2 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:57 Sep 11, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00008 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\H4263.IH H4263 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS