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[Federal Register Volume 77, Number 47 (Friday, March 9, 2012)]
[Presidential Documents]
[Pages 14265-14267]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2012-5912]



                        Presidential Documents 



Federal Register / Vol. 77, No. 47 / Friday, March 9, 2012 / 
Presidential Documents

___________________________________________________________________

Title 3--
The President

[[Page 14265]]

                Proclamation 8783 of March 6, 2012

                
To Implement the United States-Korea Free Trade 
                Agreement

                By the President of the United States of America

                A Proclamation

                1. On June 30, 2007, the United States entered into the 
                United States-Korea Free Trade Agreement (the 
                ``Agreement''). The Congress approved the Agreement in 
                section 101(a) of the United States-Korea Free Trade 
                Agreement Implementation Act (the ``Implementation 
                Act'') (Public Law 112-41, 125 Stat. 428).

                2. Section 105(a) of the Implementation 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 22 of the Agreement.

                3. Section 201 of the Implementation 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 
                Annex 2-B, Annex 4-B, and Annex 22-A of the Agreement.

                4. Section 201(d) of the Implementation Act authorizes 
                the President to proclaim the tariff treatment therein 
                for certain motor vehicles of Korea.

                5. Section 202 of the Implementation Act sets forth 
                certain rules for determining whether a good is an 
                originating good for the purpose of implementing 
                preferential tariff treatment provided for under the 
                Agreement. 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).

                6. Section 202(o) of the Implementation Act authorizes 
                the President, upon receiving a request from an 
                interested entity, to determine that a fabric, yarn, or 
                fiber is or is not available in commercial quantities 
                in a timely manner in the United States; to establish 
                procedures governing the submission of a request for 
                any such determination and ensuring appropriate public 
                participation in any such determination; to add to the 
                list of the United States as set forth in Appendix 4-B-
                1 of the Agreement any fabric, yarn, or fiber 
                determined to be not available in commercial quantities 
                in a timely manner in the United States; or to remove 
                from the list in Appendix 4-B-1 of the Agreement any 
                fabric, yarn, or fiber that the President has 
                previously added to that list.

                7. Section 207 of the Implementation Act authorizes the 
                President to take certain enforcement actions relating 
                to trade with Korea in textile and apparel goods.

                8. Subtitle C of title III of the Implementation Act 
                authorizes 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.

                9. Executive Order 11651 of March 3, 1972, as amended, 
                established the Committee for the Implementation of 
                Textile Agreements (CITA), consisting of 
                representatives of the Departments of State, the 
                Treasury, Commerce, and Labor, and the Office of the 
                United States Trade Representative, with

[[Page 14266]]

                the representative of the Department of Commerce as 
                Chairman, to supervise the implementation of textile 
                trade agreements. Consistent with section 301 of title 
                3, United States Code, when carrying out functions 
                vested in the President by statute and assigned by the 
                President to CITA, the officials collectively 
                exercising those functions are all to be officers 
                required to be appointed by the President with the 
                advice and consent of the Senate.

                10. 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 
                relevant provisions of that Act, or other Acts 
                affecting import treatment, and of actions taken 
                thereunder, including the removal, modification, 
                continuance, or imposition of any rate of duty or other 
                import restriction.

                NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the 
                United States of America, by virtue of the authority 
                vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the 
                United States of America, including but not limited to 
                section 604 of the 1974 Act; sections 105(a), 201, 202, 
                207, and subtitle C of title III of the Implementation 
                Act; and section 301 of title 3, United States Code, 
                and having made the determination under section 101(b) 
                of the Implementation Act necessary for the exchange of 
                notes, do hereby proclaim:

                    (1) In order to provide generally for the 
                preferential tariff treatment being accorded under the 
                Agreement, to set forth rules for determining whether 
                goods imported into the customs territory of the United 
                States are eligible for preferential tariff treatment 
                under the Agreement, to provide certain other treatment 
                to originating goods of Korea for the purposes of the 
                Agreement, the HTS is modified as set forth in Annex I 
                of Publication 4308 of the United States International 
                Trade Commission, entitled ``Modifications to the 
                Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States to 
                Implement the United States-Korea Free Trade 
                Agreement,'' which is incorporated by reference into 
                this proclamation.
                    (2) In order to implement the initial stage of duty 
                elimination provided for in the Agreement and to 
                provide for future staged reductions in duties for 
                originating goods of Korea for purposes of the 
                Agreement, the HTS is modified as provided in Annex II 
                of Publication 4308, 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 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 the Annexes of Publication 4308.
                    (4) The Secretary of Commerce is authorized to 
                exercise the authority of the President under section 
                105(a) of the Implementation Act to establish or 
                designate an office within the Department of Commerce 
                to carry out the functions set forth in that section.
                    (5) The CITA is authorized to exercise the 
                authority of the President under section 202(o) of the 
                Implementation Act to determine that a fabric, yarn, or 
                fiber is or is not available in commercial quantities 
                in a timely manner in the United States; to establish 
                procedures governing the request for any such 
                determination and ensuring appropriate public 
                participation in any such determination; to add any 
                fabric, yarn, or fiber determined to be not available 
                in commercial quantities in a timely manner in the 
                United States to the list in Appendix 4-B-1 of the 
                Agreement; or to remove from the list in Appendix 4-B-1 
                of the Agreement any fabric, yarn, or fiber that the 
                President has previously added to that list.
                    (6) The CITA is authorized to exercise the 
                authority of the President under section 207 of the 
                Implementation Act to direct the exclusion of certain 
                textile and apparel goods from the customs territory of 
                the United States and to direct the denial of 
                preferential tariff treatment to textile and apparel 
                goods.

[[Page 14267]]

                    (7) The CITA is authorized to exercise the 
                functions of the President under subtitle C of title 
                III of the Implementation Act to review requests, and 
                to determine whether to commence consideration of such 
                requests; after an appropriate determination, 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 
                a Korean 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 an affirmative determination as to damage or threat.
                    (8) The United States Trade Representative (USTR) 
                is authorized to fulfill the obligations of the 
                President under section 104 of the Implementation Act 
                to obtain advice from the appropriate advisory 
                committees and the United States International Trade 
                Commission on the proposed implementation of an action 
                by Presidential proclamation; to submit a report on 
                such proposed action to the appropriate congressional 
                committees; and to consult with those congressional 
                committees regarding the proposed action.
                    (9) The USTR is authorized to modify U.S. note 4 to 
                subchapter XX of chapter 99 of the HTS in a notice 
                published in the Federal Register to reflect 
                modifications pursuant to paragraph (6) of this 
                proclamation by the CITA to the list of fabrics, yarns, 
                or fibers in Annex 4-B-1 of the Agreement.
                    (10) 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 
                sixth day of March, in the year of our Lord two 
                thousand twelve, and of the Independence of the United 
                States of America the two hundred and thirty-sixth.
                
                
                    (Presidential Sig.)

[FR Doc. 2012-5912
Filed 3-8-12; 8:45 am]
Billing code 3295-F2-P
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