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 The web site is no longer updated and links to external web sites and some internal pages will not work.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 IMPLEMENT THE WORLD TRADE ORGANIZATION MINISTERIAL
DECLARATION ON TRADE IN INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY PRODUCTS
AND THE AGREEMENT ON DISTILLED SPIRITS
- - - - - - -
BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
A PROCLAMATION
On December 13, 1996, the first Ministerial Meeting of the World
Trade Organization ("the WTO") issued a Declaration On Trade In
Information Technology Products ("the ITA"), which established a
framework for expanding world trade in information technology products
and enhancing market access opportunities for such products. To
implement that declaration, 42 WTO members and governments in the
process of acceding to the WTO agreed to eliminate duties on
information technology products. These products encompass computers
and computer equipment, semiconductors and integrated circuits,
computer software products, telecommunications equipment, semiconductor
manufacturing equipment, and computer-based analytical instruments.
The participants further agreed on the common objective of achieving,
where appropriate, a common classification of such goods for tariff
purposes within the existing nomenclature of the Harmonized Commodity
Description and Coding System (HS), and on a possible future joint
suggestion to the World Customs Organization to update existing HS
nomenclature or to otherwise remedy any divergence in classification of
such goods or in interpretation of the HS nomenclature.
The United States and the European Union, on behalf of its 15
member states, also reached agreement at the WTO Ministerial Meeting on
the elimination of duties on certain distilled spirits.
Section 111(b) of the Uruguay Round Agreements Act (URAA)
(19 U.S.C. 3521(b)) authorizes the President to proclaim the
modification of any duty or staged rate reduction of any duty set forth
in Schedule XX for products in tariff categories that were the subject
of reciprocal duty elimination or harmonization negotiations during the
Uruguay Round, if the United States agrees to such action in a
multilateral negotiation under the auspices of the WTO and after
compliance with the requirements of section 115 of the URAA (19 U.S.C.
3524). The products covered by the ITA and the Agreement on Distilled
Spirits were the subject of reciprocal duty elimination negotiations
during the Uruguay Round.
Accordingly, pursuant to section 111(b) of the URAA, I have
determined to proclaim modifications in the tariff categories and rates
of duty set forth in the Harmonized Tariff Schedule ("the HTS"), as set
forth in the Annexes to this proclamation.
Proclamation 6763 of December 23, 1994, implemented the tariff and
other customs treatment resulting from the Uruguay Round of
multilateral trade negotiations, as set forth in Schedule XX, with
respect to the United States. Proclamation 6641 of December 15, 1993,
implemented the North American Free Trade Agreement ("the NAFTA") with
respect to the United States and incorporated in the HTS the tariff
modifications and rules of origin necessary or appropriate to carry out
or apply the NAFTA. Certain tariff provisions established by these
proclamations, including staged reductions in rates of duty, and
certain NAFTA rules of origin must be modified in light of the
implementation of the ITA, to ensure that the previously proclaimed
tariff and other customs treatment will be continued, and to take into
account the tariff treatment provided for in the ITA. Accordingly, I
have determined to modify the HTS in order to continue or provide such
tariff and other customs treatment.
Section 604 of the Trade Act of 1974, as amended ("the 1974 Act")
(19 U.S.C. 2483), authorizes the President to embody in the HTS the
substance of the relevant provisions of that Act, and of other acts
affecting import treatment, and actions thereunder, including removal,
modification, continuance, or imposition of any rate of duty or other
import restriction.
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 of America, including but not limited
to section 111(b) of the URAA and section 604 of the 1974 Act, do
hereby proclaim:
(1) In order to provide for the immediate or staged elimination of
duties on the information technology products covered by the ITA and on
certain distilled spirits, and to make conforming changes in other
provisions, the HTS is modified as set forth in the Annexes to this
proclamation.
(2) The modifications to the HTS made by this proclamation shall be
effective with respect to goods entered, or withdrawn from warehouse
for consumption, on or after the dates specified in the Annexes to this
proclamation.
(3) 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 thirtieth day of
June, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and ninety-seven, and of
the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and
twenty-first.