2 July 1997
Source: http://www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/aces/aces140.html

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[Federal Register: July 2, 1997 (Volume 62, Number 127)]
[Presidential Documents]
[Page 35907-35910]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr02jy97-168]

[[Page 35907]]

_______________________________________________________________________

Part V

The President

_______________________________________________________________________

Proclamation 7011--To Implement the World Trade Organization
Ministerial Declaration on Trade in Information Technology Products and
the Agreement on Distilled Spirits

Executive Order 13053--Adding Members to and Extending the President's
Council on Sustainable Development

                        Presidential Documents

___________________________________________________________________

Title 3--
The President

[[Page 35909]]

                Proclamation 7011 of June 30, 1997


                To Implement the World Trade Organization
                Ministerial Declaration on Trade in Information
                Technology Products and the Agreement on Distilled
                Spirits

                By the President of the United States of America

                A Proclamation

                1. On December 13, 1996, the first Ministerial Meeting
                of the World Trade Organization (``the WTO'') issued a
                Declaration On Trade In Information Technology Products
                (``the ITA''), which established a framework for
                expanding world trade in information technology
                products and enhancing market access opportunities for
                such products. To implement that declaration, 42 WTO
                members and governments in the process of acceding to
                the WTO agreed to eliminate duties on information
                technology products. These products encompass computers
                and computer equipment, semiconductors and integrated
                circuits, computer software products,
                telecommunications equipment, semiconductor
                manufacturing equipment, and computer-based analytical
                instruments. The participants further agreed on the
                common objective of achieving, where appropriate, a
                common classification of such goods for tariff purposes
                within the existing nomenclature of the Harmonized
                Commodity Description and Coding System (HS), and on a
                possible future joint suggestion to the World Customs
                Organization to update existing HS nomenclature or to
                otherwise remedy any divergence in classification of
                such goods or in interpretation of the HS nomenclature.

                2. The United States and the European Union, on behalf
                of its 15 member states, also reached agreement at the
                WTO Ministerial Meeting on the elimination of duties on
                certain distilled spirits.

                3. Section 111(b) of the Uruguay Round Agreements Act
                (URAA)(19 U.S.C. 3521(b)) authorizes the President to
                proclaim the modification of any duty or staged rate
                reduction of any duty set forth in Schedule XX for
                products in tariff categories that were the subject of
                reciprocal duty elimination or harmonization
                negotiations during the Uruguay Round, if the United
                States agrees to such action in a multilateral
                negotiation under the auspices of the WTO and after
                compliance with the requirements of section 115 of the
                URAA (19 U.S.C. 3524). The products covered by the ITA
                and the Agreement on Distilled Spirits were the subject
                of reciprocal duty elimination negotiations during the
                Uruguay Round.

                4. Accordingly, pursuant to section 111(b) of the URAA,
                I have determined to proclaim modifications in the
                tariff categories and rates of duty set forth in the
                Harmonized Tariff Schedule (``the HTS''), as set forth
                in the Annexes to this proclamation.

                5. Proclamation 6763 of December 23, 1994, implemented
                the tariff and other customs treatment resulting from
                the Uruguay Round of multilateral trade negotiations,
                as set forth in Schedule XX, with respect to the United
                States. Proclamation 6641 of December 15, 1993,
                implemented the North American Free Trade Agreement
                (``the NAFTA'') with respect to the United States and
                incorporated in the HTS the tariff modifications and
                rules of origin necessary or appropriate to carry out
                or apply the NAFTA. Certain tariff provisions
                established by these proclamations, including staged
                reductions in rates of duty, and certain NAFTA rules of
                origin must be modified

[[Page 35910]]

                in light of the implementation of the ITA, to ensure
                that the previously proclaimed tariff and other customs
                treatment will be continued, and to take into account
                the tariff treatment provided for in the ITA.
                Accordingly, I have determined to modify the HTS in
                order to continue or provide such tariff and other
                customs treatment.

                6. 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 the
                relevant provisions of that Act, and of other acts
                affecting import treatment, and actions thereunder,
                including 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 of America, including but not limited to
                section 111(b) of the URAA and section 604 of the 1974
                Act, do hereby proclaim:

                    (1) In order to provide for the immediate or staged
                elimination of duties on the information technology
                products covered by the ITA and on certain distilled
                spirits, and to make conforming changes in other
                provisions, the HTS is modified as set forth in the
                Annexes to this proclamation.
                    (2) 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 dates specified in the Annexes to this
                proclamation.
                    (3) 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
                thirtieth day of June, in the year of our Lord nineteen
                hundred and ninety-seven, and of the Independence of
                the United States of America the two hundred and
                twenty-first.

                    (Presidential Sig.)<Clinton1><Clinton2>

Billing code 3195-01-P
