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TO MODIFY CERTAIN PROVISIONS OF
THE SPECIAL TEXTILE AND APPAREL REGIME IMPLEMENTED
UNDER THE NORTH AMERICAN FREE TRADE AGREEMENT
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BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
A PROCLAMATION
On December 17, 1992, the Governments of Canada, Mexico, and
the United States 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)(1)(A) of the NAFTA Implementation Act (19 U.S.C.
3331(b)(1)(A)) authorizes the President to proclaim such modifications
or continuation of any duty as the President determines to be necessary
or appropriate to maintain the general level of reciprocal and mutually
advantageous concessions with respect to Canada or Mexico provided for
by the NAFTA, subject to the consultation and layover requirements of
section 103(a) of the NAFTA Implementation Act (19 U.S.C. 3313(a)).
Among the provisions previously proclaimed to implement the NAFTA
schedule of concessions is heading 9802.00.90 of the Harmonized Tariff
Schedule of the United States ("HTS"), which affords duty-free entry
into the United States of certain textile and apparel goods assembled in
Mexico, in which all fabric components were wholly formed and cut in the
United States and then exported to Mexico ready for assembly and there
assembled and returned to the U.S. customs territory.
In order to maintain the general level of reciprocal and
mutually advantageous concessions under the NAFTA, I have determined
that new provisions should be added to chapter 99 of the HTS to provide
that specified apparel articles, which are assembled in Mexico using
interlining fabrics that are cut but not formed in the United States,
and which otherwise meet the conditions set forth in HTS heading
9802.00.90, may enter the United States free of duty on a temporary
basis because the necessary interlining fabrics for such apparel are no
longer formed in the United States. The consultation and layover
requirements provided for in section 103(a) of the NAFTA Implementation
Act have been observed.
Section 604 of the Trade Act of 1974, as amended (19 U.S.C.
2483)("Trade Act"), 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 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, sections 103(a) and 201(b) of the NAFTA Implementation Act,
section 604 of the Trade Act, and section 301 of title 3, United States
Code, do proclaim that:
(1) Subchapter VI of chapter 99 of the HTS 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)(a) 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 fifteenth day after the signing of this
proclamation.
(b) At the close of the effective period specified therefor in the
Annex, HTS subheadings 9906.98.02 and 9906.98.03 shall cease to apply to
imported articles, except that goods described in such subheadings that
were shipped and in transit on a through bill of lading on such
specified date shall be eligible for the tariff treatment specified
therein as if entered on the last day of such effective period. At the
close of the day that is one year from the close of the effective period
specified in such HTS subheadings, U.S. note 28 to subchapter VI of
chapter 99, such subheadings and their immediately superior text
beginning with the word "Apparel" shall all be deleted from the HTS.
(c) The United States Trade Representative is authorized, after
obtaining advice from the appropriate advisory committees established
under section 135 of the Trade Act (19 U.S.C. 2155), to extend the
effective period of the new tariff provisions for one additional year,
upon publication in the Federal Register of a notice modifying the new
HTS subheadings accordingly.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this eighteenth day
of September, 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.