Presidential Documents

77135

Federal Register 

Vol. 69, No. 246

Thursday, December 23, 2004

Title 3— 

The President 

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 StatesAustralia 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 dutyfree 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 

77136 Federal Register / Vol. 69, No. 246 / Thursday, December 23, 2004 / Presidential Documents 

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. 

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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 IndependBilling code 3195

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ence of the United States of America the two hundred and twenty-ninth.

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