For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
April 25, 2003
Statement by the President
I have today signed into law H.R. 1584, the "Clean Diamond Trade Act." The Act enables this Nation to implement procedures developed by
more than 50 countries to exclude rough "conflict diamonds" from
international trade, while promoting legitimate trade. Conflict
diamonds have been used by rebel groups in Africa to finance their
atrocities committed on civilian popula-tions and their insurrections
against internationally recognized governments. The United States has
played a key role over the past 2 years in forging an international
consensus to curb such damaging trade and has therefore strongly
supported the "Kimberley Process." Diamonds also are critical to the
economic growth and development of African and other countries, so
preserving their legitimate trade is an important foreign policy
objective.
This Act directs the President to implement regulations to carry
out the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme (KPCS). Although under
this Act I have discretion to issue regulations consistent with future
changes to the KPCS, under the Constitution, the President cannot be
bound to accept or follow changes that might be made to the KPCS at
some future date absent subsequent legislation. I will construe this
Act accordingly.
Section 15 of the Act provides that the legislation takes effect on
the date the President certifies to the Congress that either of two
specified events has occurred. The first event is that "an applicable
waiver that has been granted by the World Trade Organization is in
effect." The second event is that "an applicable decision in a
resolution adopted by the United Nations Security Council pursuant to
Chapter VII of the Charter of the United Nations is in effect." Once
the Act takes effect, it "shall thereafter remain in effect during
those periods in which, as certified by the President to the Congress,
an applicable waiver or decision" by the World Trade Organization or
the United Nations Security Council, respectively, "is in effect."
If section 15 imposed a mandatory duty on the President to certify
to the Congress whether either of the two specified events has occurred
and whether either remains in effect, a serious question would exist as
to whether section 15 unconstitutionally delegated legislative power to
international bodies. In order to avoid this constitutional question,
I will construe the certification process set forth in section 15 as
conferring broad discretion on the President. Specifically, I will
construe section 15 as giving the President broad discretion whether to
certify to the Congress that an applicable waiver or decision is in
effect. Similarly, I will construe section 15 as imposing no
obligation on the President to withdraw an existing certification in
response to any particular event. Rather, I will construe section 15
as giving the President the discretion to determine when a
certification that an applicable waiver or decision is no longer in
effect is warranted.
GEORGE W. BUSH
THE WHITE HOUSE,
April 25, 2003.
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