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Unclas state 204591
E.o. 12958: n/a
Tags: koci, soci, casc, cmgt
Subject: Reciprocal Child Support Enforcement Arrangements
1. This is an action cable (see paras 6-7), except that it
is info only for Panama city, Mexico City, Port au Prince and
The Hague.
2. Begin summary. 1996 welfare reform legislation gives the
Secretary of State, with the concurrence of the Secretary of
Health and Human Services, the authority and responsibility
to negotiate agreements with foreign countries for the
reciprocal enforcement of child support obligations. With
such agreements in place a foreign country is treated as if
it were a state of the U.S. for purposes of child support
enforcement, and all of the procedures and enforcement
mechanisms available in interstate cases are available to
that foreign country. Essentially, it means that a foreign
country's child support order can be readily enforced in the
U.S. at no cost to the foreign parent, and all of the
collection mechanisms available under U.S. law can be used
(e.g. an enormous federal data base to locate absent parents,
garnishment of wages, liens on bank accounts, revocation of
drivers and other licenses, denial of passports). If there
is no foreign order in place, the U.S. state will obtain and
enforce a U.S. court order for the foreign applicant.
Conversely, the foreign country must be able to enforce U.S.
support obligations. The U.S. has agreements in place with a
number of European countries and Canadian provinces, but none
with countries in central or South America or the Caribbean.
We plan to focus on those regions this fiscal year and we
therefore request that addressee posts approach appropriate
host government officials to determine whether host country
is interested in negotiating such an agreement with the U.S.,
and whether host country would have the ability to
reciprocally enforce U.S. child support obligations. Post
should use the information in paragraphs 2-4. Responses are
requested by December 12. End summary.
3. Section 459a of title iv-d of the Social Security Act (42
U.S.c. 659a) authorizes the Secretary of States to declare any
foreign country (or political subdivision thereof) to be a
"foreign reciprocating country" if 1) the foreign country has
established, or undertakes to establish, procedures for the
establishment and enforcement of child support owed to
persons residing in the United Sates by persons residing in
the foreign country and 2) those procedures are
"substantially in conformity" with the standards set forth in
the statute. The statutory standards are:
establishment of child support orders, including the
establishment of paternity if necessary to establish the order
enforcement of child support orders, including collection and
distribution of payments
cost-free services (including administrative and legal
services, as well as paternity testing) to carry out the
establishment and enforcement of child support orders
designation of a central authority to facilitate enforcement
once a country has been declared to be a "reciprocating
foreign country," that country will be treated as if it were
a state of the United Sates for purposes of enforcement of
child support obligations owed to residents of the foreign
country by residents of the U.S. that means that the U.S.
will establish and enforce child support obligations owed to
residents of the foreign country at no cost to those
residents. As a practical matter, the amount of child
support going from the U.S. to foreign reciprocating
countries has been much greater than the amount coming into
the U.S. from those countries.
4. The declaration of reciprocity can take the form of an
international agreement, or a simple declaration. Six
countries (Australia, Czech Republic, Ireland, Poland,
Portugal and the Slovak Republic) and three Canadian
provinces have been declared to be "reciprocating foreign
countries". Reciprocity arrangements are nearly concluded
with several others (Norway, Denmark, The Netherlands,
Hungary, Turkey And Romania).
5. A copy of the U.S. model reciprocity agreement (in
Spanish, French or Portuguese, as appropriate, as well as in
English) and other documents (including the relevant
statutory provisions and a description of the U.S. child
support enforcement system) will be e-mailed to the person
designated in para 7.
6. Post is requested to approach the appropriate host
government officials (probably not foreign ministry
officials) and:
-- provide them with the information in paras 2-4;
-- provide them the documents referenced in para 5;
-- request copies of host country's child support
legislation/regulations;
-- ask for an explanation (preferably in writing) of host
country's child support system, with particular attention
paid to whether that system complies with the elements
required by U.S. statute for a "foreign reciprocating
country"; and
-- ask whether host country is interested in negotiating a
reciprocal child support enforcement arrangement with the U.S.
7. Please cable responses, slugged for Mary Helen Carlson,
L/PIL. . . . Please provide Ms. Carlson with the name and contact
information of an individual at post to whom she can send the
documents mentioned in para 5. L/PIL hopes to schedule
negotiating trips to the Caribbean and Central and South
America in early 2002. We are also considering regional
negotiations (e.g. negotiating with a number of Caribbean or
Central or South American countries at one time in a central
location). Therefore, post is requested to provide at least
an initial response by December 12. Given this time
constraint, if posts make the initial contacts and identify
the appropriate host country officials, L/PIL will be glad to
follow up directly with those officials if that would be more
convenient for posts.
8. Based on host countries' responses, L/PIL will determine
with which countries it would be most worthwhile to begin
negotiation of agreements. We are not asking foreign
countries to agree to the terms of our draft agreement before
we even begin negotiations and a country need not comply 100%
with the U.S. statutory requirements before we can declare
it to be reciprocating. However, if it appears from host
country's response that it is very unlikely that the country
would be able in most cases to establish and enforce U.S.
child support obligations, there would obviously be no point
in sending a negotiating team to that country.
* * * *
