[Federal Register: Thursday, July 14, 2005 (Vol 70, No 134)]
[Notices]              
[Page 40685-40686]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access
[waisaccessgpogov]
 

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 provided 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 Beginning this year, the method of determining these triggers has been modified to exclude trade from countries that are not subject to WTO safeguards This notice also includes the relevant period applicable for the trigger levels on each of the listed products

EFFECTIVE DATE: August 14, 2005

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Charles R Bertsch, Multilateral Trade Negotiations Division, Foreign Agricultural Service, room 5524--South Building, US Department of Agriculture, Washington, DC 20250-1022, telephone at (202) 720-6278, or e-mail charles.bertsch@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 tarriffication 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, Quantity Based Safeguard Trigger dated December 23, 1994 The Secretary of Agriculture further delegated the duty to the Administrator of the Foreign Agricultural Service (7 CFR 243(a)(2)) The Annex to this notice contains the updated quantity trigger levels

Beginning this year a change has been made in the method for calculating these trigger levels In previous years imports from all sources were included in the three year average used as the basis of the safeguard triggers After consulting with the US Trade Representative's Office, it was determined that it is more appropriate to exclude from these calculations imports from countries that are not subject to the WTO safeguard duties The following countries are not subject to those duties as a result of Free Trade Agreements: Canada, Mexico, Jordan, Singapore, Chile and Australia

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 and in the Secretary of Agriculture's Notice of Safeguard Action, published in the Federal Register at 60 FR 427, January 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

Dated: Issued at Washington, DC this 28 day of June, 2005 A Ellen Terpstra, Administrator, Foreign Agricultural Service, Annex

The definitions of these products were provided in the Notice of Safeguard Action published in the Federal Register, at 60 FR 427, January 4, 1995

ANNEX—QUANTITY-BASED SAFEGUARD TRIGGER


 

Last modified: Monday, July 18, 2005 AM