[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