THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary

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 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.

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