STAND. COM. REP. NO. 1584

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    H.B. No. 30

       H.D. 2

       S.D. 1

Honorable Colleen Hanabusa

President of the Senate

Twenty-Fourth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2007

State of Hawaii

Madam:

     Your Committee on Ways and Means, to which was referred H.B. No. 30, H.D. 2, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO INTERNATIONAL TRADE AGREEMENTS,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose of this bill is to protect Hawaii's interests in international trade agreements. 

The bill accomplishes this by:

(1)  Requiring legislative consent prior to binding the State to an international trade agreement;

(2)  Creating legislative points of contact to serve as liaisons between the Legislature, the Governor, and the federal government on trade-related matters;

(3)  Establishing the Office of Trade Enforcement to monitor, analyze, and assess trade; and

(4)  Establishing the Citizens' Commission on Globalization to make policy recommendations on trade issues to state and federal agencies.

     Comments in support of this measure were submitted by the Hawaii Government Employees Association, ILWU Local 142, and Public Citizen.  The Attorney General and the Hawaii State AFL-CIO submitted comments on this measure.

     Your Committee finds that the State has an interest in ensuring that provisions of international trade agreements are fair and do not harm various sections, groups, and industries within the State.  However, your Committee finds that the scope of this bill is too broad to adequately protect the interests of Hawaii.  Your Committee feels that it is more appropriate for the Legislature to address issues of procurement as they appear in international trade agreements.  Procurement involves the expenditure of state tax dollars, and the federal government has traditionally refrained from binding states to the procurement provisions of international trade agreements without first giving the states' governors the choice to voluntarily bind the state to those provisions.

     Accordingly, your Committee has amended this measure by:

(1)  Deleting section 1 of the bill which creates a new chapter of the Hawaii Revised Statutes entitled the "Jobs, Trade, and Democracy Act," and inserting provisions found in S.B. No. 1039 that relate to legislative approval of international trade agreements;

(2)  Requiring legislative consent prior to binding the State to international trade agreements with regard to those provisions in the agreements that relate to state procurement and preferences;

(3)  Allowing for special sessions of the legislature to consider approval for trade agreements that arise during the interim; and

(4)  Specifying that this measure shall not affect the binding nature of any international trade agreement on the State that the Governor has agreed to prior to the effective date of this measure.

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Ways and Means that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 30, H.D. 2, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 30, H.D. 2, S.D. 1, and be placed on the calendar for Third Reading.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Ways and Means,

____________________________

ROSALYN H. BAKER, Chair