[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 35, Number 24 (Monday, June 21, 1999)]
[Pages 1105-1107]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]
<R04>
Executive Order 13126--Prohibition of Acquisition of Products Produced
by Forced or Indentured Child Labor
June 12, 1999
By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and
the laws of the United States of America, and in order to continue the
executive branch's commitment to fighting abusive child labor practices,
it is hereby ordered as follows:
Section 1. Policy. It shall be the policy of the United States
Government, consistent with the Tariff Act of 1930, 19 U.S.C. 1307, the
Fair Labor Standards Act, 29 U.S.C. 201 et. seq., and the Walsh-Healey
Public Contracts Act, 41 U.S.C. 35 et seq., that executive agencies
shall take appropriate actions to enforce the laws prohibiting the
manufacture or importation of goods, wares, articles, and merchandise
mined, produced, or manufactured wholly or in part by forced or
indentured child labor.
Sec. 2. Publication of List. Within 120 days after the date of this
order, the Department of Labor, in consultation and cooperation with the
Department of the Treasury and the Department of State, shall publish in
the Federal Register a list of products, identified by their country of
origin, that those Departments have a reasonable basis to believe might
have been mined, produced, or manufactured by forced or indentured child
labor. The Department of Labor may conduct hearings to assist in the
identification of those products.
Sec. 3. Procurement Regulations. Within 120 days after the date of
this order, the Federal Acquisition Regulatory Council shall issue
proposed rules to implement the following:
(a) Required Solicitation Provisions. Each solicitation of offers
for a contract for the procurement of a product included on the list
published under section 2 of this order shall include the following
provisions:
[[Page 1106]]
(1) A provision that requires the contractor to certify to the
contracting officer that the contractor or, in the case of an
incorporated contractor, a responsible official of the contractor has
made a good faith effort to determine whether forced or indentured child
labor was used to mine, produce, or manufacture any product furnished
under the contract and that, on the basis of those efforts, the
contractor is unaware of any such use of child labor; and
(2) A provision that obligates the contractor to cooperate fully in
providing reasonable access to the contractor's records, documents,
persons, or premises if reasonably requested by authorized officials of
the contracting agency, the Department of the Treasury, or the
Department of Justice, for the purpose of determining whether forced or
indentured child labor was used to mine, produce, or manufacture any
product furnished under the contract.
(b) Investigations. Whenever a contracting officer of an executive
agency has reason to believe that forced or indentured child labor was
used to mine, produce, or manufacture a product furnished pursuant to a
contract subject to the requirements of subsection 3(a) of this order,
the head of the executive agency shall refer the matter for
investigation to the Inspector General of the executive agency and, as
the head of the executive agency or the Inspector General determines
appropriate, to the Attorney General and the Secretary of the Treasury.
(c) Remedies.
(1) The head of an executive agency may impose remedies as provided
in this subsection in the case of a contractor under a contract of the
executive agency if the head of the executive agency finds that the
contractor:
(i) Has furnished under the contract products that have been
mined, produced, or manufactured by forced or indentured
child labor or uses forced or indentured child labor in the
mining, production, or manufacturing operations of the
contractor;
(ii) Has submitted a false certification under subsection 3(a)(1)
of this order; or
(iii) Has failed to cooperate in accordance with the obligation
imposed pursuant to subsection 3(a)(2) of this order.
(2) The head of an executive agency, in his or her sole discretion,
may terminate a contract on the basis of any finding described in
subsection 3(c)(1) of this order for any contract entered into after the
date the regulation called for in section 3 of this order is published
in final.
(3) The head of an executive agency may debar or suspend a
contractor from eligibility for Federal contracts on the basis of a
finding that the contractor has engaged in an act described in
subsection 3(c)(1) of this order. The provision for debarment may not
exceed 3 years.
(4) The Administrator of General Services shall include on the List
of Parties Excluded from Federal Procurement and Nonprocurement Programs
(maintained by the Administrator as described in the Federal Acquisition
Regulation) each party that is debarred, suspended, proposed for
debarment or suspension, or declared ineligible by the head of an agency
on the basis that the person has engaged in an act described in
subsection 3(c)(1) of this order.
(5) This section shall not be construed to limit the use of other
remedies available to the head of an executive agency or any other
official of the Federal Government on the basis of a finding described
in subsection 3(c)(1) of this order.
Sec. 4. Report. Within 2 years after implementation of any final
rule under this order, the Administrator of General Services, with the
assistance of other executive agencies, shall submit to the Office of
Management and Budget a report on the actions taken pursuant to this
order.
Sec. 5. Scope. (a) Any proposed rules issued pursuant to section 3
of this order shall apply only to acquisitions for a total amount in
excess of the micro-purchase threshold as defined in section 32(f) of
the Office of Federal Procurement Policy Act (41 U.S.C. 428(f)).
(b) This order does not apply to a contract that is for the
procurement of any product, or any article, material, or supply
contained in a product that is mined, produced, or manufactured in any
foreign country if:
[[Page 1107]]
(1) the foreign country is a party to the Agreement on
Government Procurement annexed to the WTO Agreement or a
party to the North American Free Trade Agreement
(``NAFTA''); and
(2) the contract is of a value that is equal to or greater than
the United States threshold specified in the Agreement on
Government Procurement annexed to the WTO Agreement or
NAFTA, whichever is applicable.
Sec. 6. Definitions. (a) ``Executive agency'' and ``agency'' have
the meaning given to ``executive agency'' in section 4(1) of the Office
of Federal Procurement Policy Act (41 U.S.C. 403(1)).
(b) ``WTO Agreement'' means the Agreement Establishing the World
Trade Organization, entered into on April 15, 1994.
(c) ``Forced or indentured child labor'' means all work or service
(1) exacted from any person under the age of 18 under the menace of any
penalty for its nonperformance and for which the worker does not offer
himself voluntarily; or (2) performed by any person under the age of 18
pursuant to a contract the enforcement of which can be accomplished by
process or penalties.
Sec. 7. Judicial Review. This order is intended only to improve the
internal management of the executive branch and does not create any
rights or benefits, substantive or procedural, enforceable by law by a
party against the United States, its agencies, its officers, or any
other person.
William J. Clinton
The White House,
June 12, 1999.
[Filed with the Office of the Federal Register, 8:45 a.m., June 15,
1999]
Note: This Executive order was published in the Federal Register on June
16.