S.Amdt. 4129

SA 4129. Ms. SNOWE submitted an amendment intended to be proposed by her to the bill S. 2663, to reform the Consumer Product Safety Commission to provide greater protection for children's products, to improve the screening of noncompliant consumer products, to improve the effectiveness of consumer product recall programs, and for other purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table; as follows:

At the appropriate place, insert the following:

Section 17(15 U.S.C. 2066) is amended by adding at the end thereof the following:

“(i) The Commission may--

“(A) designate as a repeat offender, after notice and opportunity for a hearing, any country found by the Commission to have contributed on multiple occasions in the preceding twelve months to the importation of a consumer product in violation of subsection (a) (disregarding de minimus violations thereof) by the intentional, knowing, or reckless failure of its national or local government officials to enforce its own health or safety laws, regulations, or mandatory standards; and

“(B) refer any such country to United States Customs and Border Protection with a recommendation that all or any subset specified by the Commission of that country's consumer product imports be temporarily denied entry for a period of up to six months to allow U.S. inspections and corrective action by the designated country to be undertaken.

“(2) The United States Customs and Border Protection shall for the specified period deny entry to the specified consumer product imports of any country referred to it under paragraph (1)(B).

“(3) The Commission may renew any referral under paragraph (1)(B), and any renewal of any referral made under this paragraph, if it determines, after notice and opportunity for hearing, that the designated country has yet to take appropriate corrective action to enforce its own health or safety laws, regulations, or mandatory standards.

“(4) To ensure compliance with international trade obligations, the Commission shall not make a referral under paragraph (1)(B) or a renewal of a referral under paragraph (3) with respect to a country whose products the United States has agreed to extend national treatment if it finds that the United States, by the intentional, knowing, or reckless failure of its national or local government officials to enforce its own health or safety laws, regulations, or mandatory standards, has on multiple occasions in the preceding twelve months contributed to the sale, offer for sale, manufacture for sale or distribution in commerce of a consumer product that, had it been imported, would have been refused admission under subsection (a) (disregarding de minimus violations thereof).”