[Federal Register: December 23, 2004 (Volume 69, Number 246)]
[Presidential Documents]
[Page 77133-77137]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr23de04-120]
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Part VII
The President
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Proclamation 7857--To Implement the United States-Australia Free Trade
Agreement
Presidential Documents
___________________________________________________________________
Title 3--
The President
[[Page 77135]]
Proclamation 7857 of December 20, 2004
To Implement the United States-Australia Free
Trade
®MDBU¯*ERR01*®MDNM¯Agreement
By the President of the United States of America
A Proclamation
1. On May 18, 2004, the United States entered into the
United States-Australia Free Trade Agreement (USAFTA).
The USAFTA was approved by the Congress in section
101(a) of the United States-Australia Free Trade
Agreement Implementation Act (the ``USAFTA Act'')
(Public Law 108-286, 118 Stat. 919) (19 U.S.C. 3805
note).
2. Section 105(a) of the USAFTA Act authorizes the
President to establish or designate within the
Department of Commerce an office that shall be
responsible for providing administrative assistance to
panels established under Chapter 21 of the USAFTA.
3. Section 201 of the USAFTA Act authorizes the
President to proclaim such modifications or
continuation of any duty, such continuation of duty-
free or excise treatment, or such additional duties, as
the President determines to be necessary or appropriate
to carry out or apply Articles 2.3, 2.5, and 2.6, and
the schedule of reductions with respect to Australia
set forth in Annex 2-B, of the USAFTA.
4. Section 203 of the USAFTA Act provides certain rules
for determining whether a good is an originating good
for the purpose of implementing preferential tariff
treatment under the USAFTA. I have decided that it is
necessary to include these rules of origin, together
with particular rules applicable to certain other
goods, in the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United
States (HTS).
5. Section 206 of the USAFTA Act authorizes the
President to take certain enforcement actions relating
to trade with Australia in textile and apparel goods.
6. Sections 321-328 of the USAFTA Act authorize the
President to take certain actions in response to a
request by an interested party for relief from serious
damage or actual threat thereof to a domestic industry
producing certain textile or apparel articles.
7. Executive Order 11651 of March 3, 1972, as amended,
establishes the Committee for the Implementation of
Textile Agreements (CITA) to supervise the
implementation of textile trade agreements.
8. Section 604 of the Trade Act of 1974 (the ``1974
Act'') (19 U.S.C. 2483), as amended, authorizes the
President to embody in the HTS the substance of
relevant provisions of that Act, or other acts
affecting import treatment, and of actions taken
thereunder.
NOW, THEREFORE, I, GEORGE W. BUSH, President of the
United States of America, acting under the authority
vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the
United States of America, including but not limited to
sections 105(a), 201, 203, 206, and 321-328 of the
USAFTA Act, section 301 of title 3, United States Code,
and section 604 of the 1974 Act, do proclaim that:
(1) In order to provide generally for the
preferential tariff treatment being accorded under the
USAFTA, to set forth rules for determining whether
[[Page 77136]]
goods imported into the customs territory of the United
States are eligible for preferential tariff treatment
under the USAFTA, to provide certain other treatment to
originating goods for the purposes of the USAFTA, and
to provide tariff-rate quotas with respect to certain
originating goods, the HTS is modified as set forth in
Annex I of Publication No. 3722 of the United States
International Trade Commission, entitled Modifications
to the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States
Implementing the United States-Australia Free Trade
Agreement (Publication 3722), which is incorporated by
reference into this proclamation.
(2) In order to implement the initial stage of duty
elimination provided for in the USAFTA, to provide
tariff-rate quotas with respect to certain originating
goods, and to provide for future staged reductions in
duties for originating products of Australia for
purposes of the USAFTA, the HTS is modified as provided
in Annex II of Publication 3722, effective on the dates
specified in the relevant sections of such publication
and on any subsequent dates set forth for such duty
reductions in that publication.
(3) The Secretary of Commerce is authorized to
exercise the authority of the President under section
105(a) of the USAFTA Act to establish or designate an
office within the Department of Commerce to carry out
the functions set forth in that section.
(4) (a) The amendments to the HTS made by
paragraphs (1) and (2) of this proclamation shall be
effective with respect to goods entered, or withdrawn
from warehouse for consumption, on or after the
relevant dates indicated in Annex II to Publication
3722.
(b) Except as provided in paragraph 4(a) of this proclamation, this
proclamation shall be effective with respect to goods entered, or withdrawn
from warehouse for consumption, on or after January 1, 2005.
(5) The CITA is authorized to exercise the
authority of the President under section 206 of the
USAFTA Act to exclude textile and apparel goods from
the customs territory of the United States; to
determine whether an enterprise's production of, and
capability to produce, goods are consistent with
statements by the enterprise; to find that an
enterprise has knowingly or willfully engaged in
circumvention; and to deny preferential tariff
treatment to textile and apparel goods.
(6) The CITA is authorized to exercise the
authority of the President under sections 321-328 of
the USAFTA Act to review requests, including
allegations of critical circumstances, and to determine
whether to commence consideration of such requests; to
cause to be published in the Federal Register a notice
of commencement of consideration of a request and
notice seeking public comment; to determine whether
imports of an Australian textile or apparel article are
causing serious damage, or actual threat thereof, to a
domestic industry producing an article that is like, or
directly competitive with, the imported article; and to
provide relief from imports of an article that is the
subject of such a determination; and if critical
circumstances are alleged, to determine whether there
is clear evidence that imports from Australia have
increased as the result of the reduction or elimination
of a customs duty under the USAFTA, whether there is
clear evidence that such imports are causing serious
damage, or actual threat thereof, to a domestic
industry producing an article that is like, or directly
competitive with, the imported article, and whether
delay in taking action would cause damage to that
industry that would be difficult to repair; and to
provide provisional relief with respect to imports that
are subject to an affirmative determination of critical
circumstances that is necessary to remedy or prevent
the serious damage.
(7) All provisions of previous proclamations and
Executive Orders that are inconsistent with the actions
taken in this proclamation are superseded to the extent
of such inconsistency.
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IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this
twentieth day of December, in the year of our Lord two
thousand four, and of the Independence of the United
States of America the two hundred and twenty-ninth.
(Presidential Sig.)B
[FR Doc. 04-28242
Filed 12-22-04; 8:45 am]
Billing code 3195-01-P