---
kind: "section"
citation: "19 U.S.C. § 3739"
title: "19"
title_heading: "Customs Duties"
number: "3739"
heading: "Sense of the Congress relating to HIV/AIDS crisis in sub-Saharan Africa"
release: "119-102"
date: "2026-07-12"
url: "https://uscodex.org/usc/19/3739"
units:
  - "Chapter 23 — Extension of Certain Trade Benefits to Sub-Saharan Africa"
  - "Subchapter III — Economic Development Related Issues"
---

# §3739. Sense of the Congress relating to HIV/AIDS crisis in sub-Saharan Africa

- (a) **Findings—** The Congress finds the following:
  - (1) Sustained economic development in sub-Saharan Africa depends in large measure upon successful trade with and foreign assistance to the [countries](/usc/19/1677.md?p=3) of sub-Saharan Africa.
  - (2) The HIV/AIDS crisis has reached epidemic proportions in sub-Saharan Africa, where more than 21,000,000 men, women, and children are infected with HIV.
  - (3) Eighty-three percent of the estimated 11,700,000 deaths from HIV/AIDS worldwide have been in sub-Saharan Africa.
  - (4) The HIV/AIDS crisis in sub-Saharan Africa is weakening the structure of families and societies.
  - (5)
    - (A) The HIV/AIDS crisis threatens the future of the workforce in sub-Saharan Africa.
    - (B) Studies show that HIV/AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa most severely affects individuals between the ages of 15 and 49—the age group that provides the most support for the economies of sub-Saharan African [countries](/usc/19/1677.md?p=3).
  - (6) Clear evidence demonstrates that HIV/AIDS is destructive to the economies of sub-Saharan African [countries](/usc/19/1677.md?p=3).
  - (7) Sustained economic development is critical to creating the public and private sector resources in sub-Saharan Africa necessary to fight the HIV/AIDS epidemic.
- (b) **Sense of the Congress—** It is the sense of the Congress that—
  - (1) addressing the HIV/AIDS crisis in sub-Saharan Africa should be a central component of [United States](/usc/19/1683.md?p=9) foreign policy with respect to sub-Saharan Africa;
  - (2) significant progress needs to be made in preventing and treating HIV/AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa in order to sustain a mutually beneficial trade relationship between the [United States](/usc/19/1683.md?p=9) and sub-Saharan African [countries](/usc/19/1677.md?p=3); and
  - (3) the HIV/AIDS crisis in sub-Saharan Africa is a global threat that merits further attention through greatly expanded public, private, and joint public-private efforts, and through appropriate [United States](/usc/19/1683.md?p=9) legislation.

## Source credit

(Pub. L. 106–200, title I, § 129, May 18, 2000, 114 Stat. 273.)