Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2000. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Associated Press - Tuesday October 24, 2000
Jim Abrams, Associated Press Writer
The House passed the bill Tuesday by voice vote and sent it back to the Senate, where a slightly different version was approved earlier this month.
One difference is that the Senate would require labeling of all fur products regardless of price, while the House's labeling language is less comprehensive.
Wayne Pacelle, senior vice president of the Humane Society of the United States, said the legislation "addresses a massive problem in Asia where dogs and cats are killed by the millions for the pelts to export to Western markets."
He said all fur products should be labeled to circumvent attempts by foreigners marketing dog and cat fur to deceive the American public.
Two years ago the Burlington Coat Factory, the nation's largest coat retailer, pulled hundreds of men's parkas from its stores after learning that the China-made coats included fur from dogs.
The legislation, sponsored in the Senate by Finance Committee Chairman William Roth, R-Del., temporarily suspends tariffs on two drugs, DPC 961 and DPC 083, that have proved effective in the treatment of people with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS .
Rep. Philip Crane, R-Ill., the House sponsor, said the bill contains 155 provisions that lower or suspend tariffs for chemicals and drugs that are not produced in the United States. These include environmentally safe herbicides and insecticides.
He said it gives duty-free treatment to participants in international sporting events such as the 2002 winter Olympics in Salt Lake City and makes normal trade relations with the West Asian nation of Georgia permanent.
"Gray market" cigarettes, manufactured abroad but bearing U.S.-registered trademarks, also are banned. Such cigarettes may account for as much as 14 percent of all sales in the United States. They undermine funding for the states' tobacco settlement and potentially evade federal health requirements.
The bill is H.R. 4868.
On the Net: Humane Society: http://www.hsus.org/ Search for bills at: http://thomas.loc.gov/
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