[Federal Register Volume 69, Number 246 (Thursday, December 23, 2004)]
[Presidential Documents]
[Pages 77135-77137]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 04-28242]



[[Page 77133]]

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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 



Federal Register / Vol. 69, No. 246 / Thursday, December 23, 2004 / 
Presidential Documents

___________________________________________________________________

Title 3--
The President

[[Page 77135]]

                Proclamation 7857 of December 20, 2004

                
To Implement the United States-Australia Free 
                Trade 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.

[[Page 77137]]

                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