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TO IMPLEMENT AN ACCELERATED SCHEDULE
OF DUTY ELIMINATION UNDER THE
NORTH AMERICAN FREE TRADE AGREEMENT
- - - - - - -
BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
A PROCLAMATION
On December 17, 1992, the Governments of Canada, Mexico, and
the United States of America entered into the North American Free Trade
Agreement ("the NAFTA"). The NAFTA was approved by the Congress in
section 101(a) of the North American Free Trade Agreement Implementation
Act ("the NAFTA Implementation Act") (19 U.S.C. 3311(a)) and was
implemented with respect to the United States by Presidential
Proclamation 6641 of December 15, 1993.
Section 201(b) of the NAFTA Implementation Act (19 U.S.C.
3331(b)) authorizes the President, subject to the consultation and
layover requirements of section 103(a) of the NAFTA Implementation Act
(19 U.S.C. 3313(a)), to proclaim accelerated schedules for duty
elimination that the United States may agree to with Mexico or Canada.
Consistent with Article 302(3) of the NAFTA, I, through my duly
empowered representative, entered into an agreement with the Government
of Mexico and the Government of Canada, dated July 27, 1998, providing
for an accelerated schedule of duty elimination for specific goods of
Mexico. The consultation and layover requirements of section 103(a) of
the NAFTA Implementation Act with respect to such schedule of duty
elimination have been satisfied.
Pursuant to section 201(b) of the NAFTA Implementation Act, I
have determined that the modifications hereinafter proclaimed of duties
on goods originating in the territory of a NAFTA party are necessary or
appropriate to (i) maintain the general level of reciprocal and mutually
advantageous concessions with respect to Canada and Mexico provided for
by the NAFTA and (ii) to carry out the agreement with Canada and Mexico
providing an accelerated schedule of duty elimination for specific
goods.
Section 604 of the Trade Act of 1974, as amended (19 U.S.C.
2483) ("the Trade Act"), authorizes the President to embody in the
Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States ("the HTS") the
substance of the relevant provisions of acts affecting import treatment,
and actions thereunder, including the 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, including but not
limited to section 201(b) of the NAFTA Implementation Act and section
604 of the Trade Act, do proclaim that:
(1) In order to provide for an accelerated schedule of duty
elimination for specific goods, the tariff treatment set forth in the
HTS for certain NAFTA originating goods is modified as provided in the
Annex to this proclamation.
(2) Any 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.
(3) The amendments made to the HTS by the Annex to this
proclamation shall be effective with respect to goods entered, or
withdrawn from warehouse for consumption, on or after August 1, 1998.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this thirty-first
day of July, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and ninety-eight,
and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred
and twenty-third.