This is historical material, "frozen in time." The web site is no longer updated and links to external web sites and some internal pages will not work.
TO PROVIDE DUTY-FREE TREATMENT TO PRODUCTS
OF THE WEST BANK AND THE GAZA STRIP
AND QUALIFYING INDUSTRIAL ZONES
- - - - - - -
BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
A PROCLAMATION
Section 9(a) of the United States-Israel Free Trade
Area Implementation Act of 1985, as amended (the "Act")
(19 U.S.C. 2112 note), authorizes the President to proclaim
elimination or modification of any existing duty under certain
conditions as the President determines is necessary to exempt
any article of the West Bank or Gaza Strip or a qualifying
industrial zone from duty.
Section 9(c) of the Act authorizes the President to
proclaim that articles of Israel may be treated as though they
were articles directly shipped from Israel for the purposes of
the U.S.-Israel Free Trade Agreement (the "Agreement") even if
shipped to the United States from the West Bank, the Gaza Strip,
or a qualifying industrial zone, if the articles otherwise meet
the requirements of the Agreement.
Section 9(d) of the Act authorizes the President to
proclaim that the cost or value of materials produced in the
West Bank, the Gaza Strip, or a qualifying industrial zone may
be included in the cost or value of materials produced in Israel
under section 1(c)(i) of Annex 3 of the Agreement, and the
direct costs of processing operations performed in the West
Bank, the Gaza Strip, or a qualifying industrial zone may be
included in the direct costs of processing operations performed
in Israel under section 1(c)(ii) of Annex 3 of the Agreement.
Section 9(e) of the Act authorizes the President to
specify areas that constitute qualifying industrial zones for
purposes of the Act.
Pursuant to section 9(a) of the Act, I have determined
that the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States (HTS)
should be modified to provide duty-free entry to qualifying
articles that are the product of the West Bank or Gaza Strip or
a qualifying industrial zone and are entered in accordance with
the provisions of section 9 of the Act.
I have decided that articles of Israel may be treated
as though they were articles directly shipped from Israel
for the purposes of the Agreement even if shipped to the
United States from the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, or a
qualifying industrial zone, if the articles otherwise meet the
requirements of the Agreement.
I have decided that the cost or value of materials
produced in the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, or a qualifying
industrial zone may be included in the cost or value of
materials produced in Israel under section 1(c)(i) of Annex 3
of the Agreement, and the direct costs of processing operations
performed in the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, or a qualifying
industrial zone may be included in the direct costs of
processing operations performed in Israel under section 1(c)(ii)
of Annex 3 of the Agreement.
Section 604 of the Trade Act of 1974 (19 U.S.C. 2483)
authorizes the President to embody in the HTS the substance of
the provisions of that Act, and of other acts affecting import
treatment, and actions thereunder.
NOW, THEREFORE, I, WILLIAM J. CLINTON, President of the
United States of America, acting under the authority vested
in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States,
including but not limited to section 301 of title 3, United
States Code, section 9 of the Act (19 U.S.C. 2112 note), and
section 604 of the Trade Act of 1974 (19 U.S.C. 2483), do
proclaim that:
(1) In order to provide the tariff treatment being
accorded under the Act, the HTS is modified as set forth in the
Annex to this proclamation.
(2) I delegate to the United States Trade Representative
the powers granted to me in section 9(e) of the Act to specify
through notice in the Federal Register areas constituting
qualifying industrial zones.
(3) The modifications to the HTS made by the Annex shall
be effective with respect to goods entered, or withdrawn from
warehouse for consumption, on and after the third day after
the date of publication of this proclamation in the Federal
Register.
(4) 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.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this
thirteenth day of November, in the year of our Lord
nineteen hundred and ninety-six, and of the Independence of the
United States of America the two hundred and twenty-first.