HR4583SEP22

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Week Ending September 22, 2006

H.R.4583 To amend the Wool Products Labeling Act of 1939 to revise the requirements for labeling of certain wool and cashmere products.

Wool quality is determined in part by the diameter of the fiber. A 1939 law requires that most textiles or wool products include a permanent tag explaining the fiber content of the article, the country of origin and the name of the manufacturer or business that distributed the product. Other labeling requirements dictate that most fibers be identified when they meet or exceed 5% of the product weight and products containing wool must be labeled as such. The 1939 Act also requires that wool fibers only be identified on labels as ‘wool’.

Labeling today has moved to identifying wool fiber quality with numbers. The numbers run from ‘Super 80’ to ‘Super 250’ and the higher numbers equal finer yarn and so higher costs, the bill noted. The fiber diameters in the Supers range from an average of 19.5 microns to an average of 11 microns or less. The International Wool Trade Organization adopted the ‘Super’ identifying system and it is time for those standards to be incorporated into the 1939 Act. This bill incorporates those standards and adds a specific definition of cashmere so to ‘protect the consumer from deceptively labeled textiles.”

Cashmere is misbranded under the bill if the product is not the de-haired undercoat fibers produced by a cashmere goat, the average fiber diameter exceeds 19 microns or the product contains more than 3% by weight of cashmere fibers with average diameters that exceed 30 microns.

Sponsor: Rep Marsha Blackburn (R-TN-7^th)

Vote: Passed House by voice vote September 19, 2006

Cost to the taxpayers: “CBO estimates that the cost of enforcing these new labeling requirements would be less than $500,000 a year, assuming the availability of appropriated funds. Enacting H.R. 4583 would not affect direct spending or revenues.”

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MORE INFORMATION

SEC. 4. (a) A wool product shall be misbranded--

(1) * * *

* * * * * * *

(5) In the case of a wool product stamped, tagged, labeled, or otherwise identified as--

(A) `Super 80's' or `80's', if the average diameter of wool fiber of such wool product does not average 19.5 microns or finer;

(B) `Super 90's' or `90's', if the average diameter of wool fiber of such wool product does not average 19.0 microns or finer;

(C) `Super 100's' or `100's', if the average diameter of wool fiber of such wool product does not average 18.5 microns or finer;

(D) `Super 110's' or `110's', if the average diameter of wool fiber of such wool product does not average 18.0 microns or finer;

(E) `Super 120's' or `120's', if the average diameter of wool fiber of such wool product does not average 17.5 microns or finer;

(F) `Super 130's' or `130's', if the average diameter of wool fiber of such wool product does not average 17.0 microns or finer;

(G) `Super 140's' or `140's', if the average diameter of wool fiber of such wool product does not average 16.5 microns or finer;

(H) `Super 150's' or `150's', if the average diameter of wool fiber of such wool product does not average 16.0 microns or finer;

(I) `Super 160's' or `160's', if the average diameter of wool fiber of such wool product does not average 15.5 microns or finer;

(J) `Super 170's' or `170's', if the average diameter of wool fiber of such wool product does not average 15.0 microns or finer;

(K) `Super 180's' or `180's', if the average diameter of wool fiber of such wool product does not average 14.5 microns or finer;

(L) `Super 190's' or `190's', if the average diameter of wool fiber of such wool product does not average 14.0 microns or finer;

(M) `Super 200's' or `200's', if the average diameter of wool fiber of such wool product does not average 13.5 microns or finer;

(N) `Super 210's' or `210's', if the average diameter of wool fiber of such wool product does not average 13.0 microns or finer;

(O) `Super 220's' or `220's', if the average diameter of wool fiber of such wool product does not average 12.5 microns or finer;

(P) `Super 230's' or `230's', if the average diameter of wool fiber of such wool product does not average 12.0 microns or finer;

(Q) `Super 240's' or `240's', if the average diameter of wool fiber of such wool product does not average 11.5 microns or finer; and

(R) `Super 250's' or `250's', if the average diameter of wool fiber of such wool product does not average 11.0 microns or finer.

In each such case, the average fiber diameter of such wool product may be subject to such standards or deviations as adopted by regulation by the Commission.

(6) In the case of a wool product stamped, tagged, labeled, or otherwise identified as cashmere, if--

(A) such wool product is not the fine (dehaired) undercoat fibers produced by a cashmere goat (capra hircus laniger);

(B) the average diameter of the fiber of such wool product exceeds 19 microns; or

(C) such wool product contains more than 3 percent (by weight) of cashmere fibers with average diameters that exceed 30 microns.

The average fiber diameter may be subject to a coefficient of variation around the mean that shall not exceed 24 percent.

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