Federal Register Notices
[Federal Register: March 23, 2007 (Volume 72, Number 56)]
[Notices]
[Page 13738-13740]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr23mr07-31]
DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
Foreign Agricultural Service
WTO Agricultural
Safeguard Trigger
Levels
AGENCY: Foreign
Agricultural
Service, USDA.
ACTION: Notice of product coverage and
trigger levels for
safeguard measures provides for
in the World Trade Organization (WTO)
Agreement on Agriculture.
SUMMARY: This notice lists the updated
quantity trigger levels
for products, which may be subject to additional
import duties under the safeguard
provisions of the WTO Agreement
on Agriculture. This notice also includes the
relevant period applicable for the
trigger levels on
each of the listed products.
DATES: Effective Date: March 23, 2007.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Lana Bennett,
Import and Trade Support Programs Division,
Foreign
Agricultural Service, U.S. Department
of Agriculture, Stop 1047, 1400 Independence
Avenue, SW., Washington, DC 20250-1047,
telephone at (202) 720-0638, or e-mail
itspd@fas.usda.gov.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Article 5 of the
WTO Agreement on Agriculture
provides that additional import duties may be
imposed on imports of products subject to
tariffication as a result of the Uruguay Round
if certain conditions are met. The agreement
permits additional duties to be charged if the
price of an individual shipment of imported
products falls below the average price for
similar goods imported during the years 1986-88
by a specified percentage. It also permits
additional duties to be imposed if the volume of
imports of an article exceeds the average of the
most recent 3 years for which data are available
by 5, 10, or 25 percent, depending on the
article. These additional duties may not be
imposed on quantities for which minimum or
current access commitments were made during the
Uruguay Round negotiations, and only one type of
safeguard, price or quantity,
may be applied at any given time to an article.
Section 405 of the Uruguay Round Agreements Act
requires that the President cause to be
published in the Federal Register information
regarding the price and quantity safeguards,
including the quantity trigger
levels, which must be updated
annually based upon import levels
during the most recent 3
years. The President delegated this duty to the
Secretary of Agriculture in Presidential
Proclamation No. 6763, dated December 23, 1994,
60 FR 1005 (Jan. 4, 1995). The Secretary of
Agriculture further delegated the duty to the
Administrator of the Foreign
Agricultural
Service (7 CFR 2.43(a)(2) (2007)). The Annex to
this notice contains the updated quantity
trigger levels.
Additional information on the products subject to safeguards
and the additional duties which may apply can be
found in subchapter IV of Chapter 99 of the
Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States
(2007) and in the Secretary of Agriculture's
Notice of Uruguay Round Agricultural
Safeguard Trigger
Levels, published in the
Federal Register at 60 FR 427, (Jan. 4, 1995).
Notice: As provided in section 405 of the Uruguay Round
Agreements Act, consistent with Article 5 of the
Agreement on Agriculture, the safeguard
quantity trigger levels
previously notified are superceded by the
levels indicated in the Annex
to this notice. The definitions of these
products were provided in the Notice of Uruguay
Round Agricultural
Safeguard Trigger
Levels, published in the
Federal Register at 60 FR 427, (Jan. 4, 1995).
Dated: March 15, 2007.
Michael W. Yost,
Administrator, Foreign
Agricultural
Service