Fact Sheet: Presidential Certification of Major Drug Producers

(20 of 26 "majors" certified as cooperating fully) (590)

Following is a White House fact sheet, released March 1, on President
Clinton's decisions concerning certification of major drug producing
or transit countries or jurisdictions as cooperating in the
international anti-narcotics effort.

(begin fact sheet)

FACT SHEET

THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary

March 1, 2000

FACT SHEET

Overview of Annual Presidential Certification of Major Drug Producing
and Transit Countries

-- Under the Foreign Assistance Act (FAA) of 1961, as amended, the
President must identify and notify the Congress of those countries he
has determined are major illicit drug producing and/or drug transit
countries. President Clinton identified the current list of 26 major
illicit drug producing and/or transit countries and certain
jurisdictions and notified the Congress in November 1999. Pursuant to
the FAA, the United States is required to impose substantial
restrictions on assistance (other than specified categories of
counter-narcotics and humanitarian assistance) to these countries
unless, not later than March 1st of each year, the President makes
certain determinations and certifies them to the Congress. The FAA
also states that the United States must vote against loans to a majors
list country by any of six specified multilateral development banks,
unless that country has been certified.

-- The President may determine and certify to Congress that a majors
list country is cooperating fully with the United States, or has taken
adequate steps on its own, to achieve full compliance with the goals
and objectives of the 1988 UN Drug Convention. In reaching this
determination, the President is required to consider each country's
performance in areas such as stemming illicit cultivation, extraditing
drug traffickers, and taking legal steps and law enforcement measures
to prevent and punish public corruption that facilitates drug
trafficking or impedes prosecution of drug-related crimes. The
President must also consider efforts taken by these countries to stop
the production and export of, and reduce the domestic demand for,
illegal drugs.

-- On February 29th, President Clinton certified that 20 of the
countries and certain jurisdictions on the majors list have cooperated
fully with the United States or have taken adequate steps on their own
to achieve full compliance with the goals and objectives of the 1988
UN Drug Convention. These countries or jurisdictions are: The Bahamas,
Bolivia, Brazil, China, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador,
Guatemala, Hong Kong, India, Jamaica, Laos, Mexico, Pakistan, Panama,
Peru, Taiwan, Thailand, Venezuela, and Vietnam.

-- The President may also determine and certify to the Congress that
the vital national interests of the United States require that a
country be certified -- even if that country does not meet the
criteria for a certification based on either full cooperation with the
United States, or taking adequate steps on its own, to achieve full
compliance with the goals and objectives of the 1988 UN Drug
Convention. The basis for such a determination is that our vital
national interests require that the assistance that otherwise would be
withheld be provided. Four countries were certified on the basis of
U.S. vital national interests: Cambodia, Haiti, Nigeria and Paraguay.

-- The President did not certify two countries that do not meet the
statutory standard for certification: Afghanistan and Burma.
Decertification results in substantial restrictions on most types of
U.S. assistance to these countries.

(end fact sheet)

(Distributed by the Office of International Information Programs, U.S.
Department of State. Web site: usinfo.state.gov)