[Federal Register Volume 66, Number 126 (Friday, June 29, 2001)]
[Notices]
[Pages 34730-34732]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 01-16322]


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UNITED STATES TRADE REPRESENTATIVE


Request for Comment on Articles To Be Considered for Accelerated 
Tariff Elimination Under the North American Free Trade Agreement

AGENCY: Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR).

ACTION: Notice of articles proposed for accelerated tariff elimination 
under the North American Free Trade Agreement and request for comment.

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SUMMARY: Section 201(b) of the North American Free Trade Agreement 
Implementation Act (``the Act'') (19 U.S.C 3331(b)) grants the 
President, subject to the consultation and layover

[[Page 34731]]

requirements of section 103(a) of the Act (19 U.S.C 3313(a)), the 
authority to proclaim any accelerated schedule for duty elimination 
that the United States may agree to with Mexico or Canada regarding the 
staging of any duty treatment set forth in Annex 302.2 of the North 
American Free Trade Agreement (``the NAFTA''). This notice is intended 
to inform the public of the list of products with respect to which the 
United States has received petitions to accelerate the elimination of 
duties for Mexican products entering the United States and for U.S. 
products entering Mexico, and to request comment on these articles.

DATES: Although USTR will accept any comments received during the 
course of its review, comments should be submitted on or before July 
15, 2001, in order to be assured of timely consideration by USTR.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Kent Shigetomi, Director, Mexico and 
NAFTA Affairs, Office of Western Hemisphere Affairs, Office of the 
United States Trade Representative, Room 523, 600 17th Street, NW., 
Washington, DC 20508; telephone: (202) 395-3412; fax: (202) 395-9517. 
The list of products with respect to which the United States has 
received petitions can be obtained from the USTR Internet Web Page, at 
www.ustr.gov under [World Regions/Western Hemisphere/North American 
Free Trade Agreement/NAFTA Reports and Publications/2001 Tariff 
Acceleration].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Article 302(3) of the NAFTA provides that 
two or more Parties to the NAFTA may consider and agree to accelerate 
the elimination of customs duties set out in their schedules. Since the 
NAFTA was implemented, the NAFTA governments have completed three 
rounds of accelerated tariff elimination, in 1994, 1997, and 2000. All 
duties between the United States and Canada covered by the NAFTA were 
eliminated on January 1, 1998, so the last two tariff acceleration 
rounds consisted of two parallel agreements, one between the U.S. and 
Mexico, and the other between Canada and Mexico.
    As part of the third round of tariff acceleration, on May 27, 1999, 
USTR published a Federal Register notice (64 FR 28857) soliciting 
petitions from interested persons regarding products for which 
accelerated tariff elimination would be appropriate. The Federal 
Register notice also allowed for annual consideration of new requests, 
with a closing date of March 1.
    USTR received two petitions requesting accelerated elimination of 
duties on a number of products. The Annexes to this notice list the 
products for which petitions were filed. Annex I lists subheadings in 
the Mexican Tariff Schedule of the General Import Duty Act that are 
proposed for accelerated tariff elimination with respect to goods of 
the United States. Subsequent to the negotiation of a trade agreement 
between the European Union and Mexico in 2000, the United States 
identified 40 products for which the U.S. tariff was already zero, but 
Mexico's tariff on imports from the U.S. was higher than Mexico's 
tariff on imports from the European Union. The U.S. is seeking to 
accelerate the elimination of Mexican duties on these items. These 
goods are marked with an asterisk (*). Annex II to this notice lists 
the subheadings in the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States 
(``HTS'') that are proposed for accelerated tariff elimination with 
respect to goods of Mexico.
    The Mexican Tarifa de la Ley del Impuesto General de Importacion 
(Tariff Schedule of the General Import Duty Act) should be consulted 
for a description of the articles covered in the tariff subheadings in 
Annex I. A description of the articles covered by the HTS subheadings 
in Annex II is available on the web site of the United States 
International Trade Commission, www.usitc.gov. An Internet source for 
tariff subheading descriptions of the United States and Mexico is 
www.apectariff.org.
    USTR invites comments on the advisability of accelerated tariff 
elimination with respect to the subheadings listed in the annexes to 
this notice. The U.S. and Mexico will consider accelerated tariff 
elimination for all products falling under these subheadings. However, 
acceleration for a subset of the articles covered in a particular 
subheading will be considered in the alternative, as necessary. Thus, 
comments should specify if only a subset of all products is of concern 
to the commenting party.

Request for Comment

    Comments should be submitted either via electronic mail to 
[email protected], or in ten type-written copies to the address 
specified above. USTR prefers that comments be submitted via electronic 
mail whenever possible. All submissions must specify: (1) The tariff 
subheadings to which the comments refer, and the importing and 
exporting NAFTA countries (e.g., goods of the United States exported to 
Mexico, or goods of Mexico exported to the United States); (2) the 
name, address and telephone number of the person, firm or organization 
making the comments; and (3) an indication as to whether the submitter 
represents a producer, importer, exporter, consumer (or any 
combination), or other party (please specify interest), for each 
country (for example, a producer and exporter in the United States, and 
an importer in Mexico). Submissions not meeting these requirements will 
not be considered.
    Comments submitted to USTR will be available for public inspection 
in the USTR public reading room. Submitters who wish to exempt 
information from public disclosure should comply with the requirements 
of 19 CFR 2003.6 regarding submissions containing business confidential 
information. In addition, such persons should submit a public version 
of their comments. Submissions containing business confidential 
information should be submitted in hard copy, rather than by electronic 
mail.

ITC and Advisory Committee Advice

    Pursuant to section 103 of the Act (19 U.S.C. 3313), USTR will 
request the advice of the United States International Trade Commission 
concerning the probable economic effect on U.S. industries producing 
like or directly competitive articles, and on consumers, of the 
proposed accelerated tariff eliminations with respect to the 
subheadings listed in Annex II. USTR will also obtain the advice of the 
appropriate private sector advisory committees.

Bennett Harman,
Acting Assistant U.S. Trade Representative for the Western Hemisphere.

Annex I; List of Proposed Subheadings for Which Mexico Would Accelerate 
the Elimination of Duties for NAFTA Qualifying Goods of the United 
States

3002.10.08*           6404.11.01            8527.29.99*
3004.90.20*           6404.19.99            8531.90.99*
3005.10.99*           6404.20.01            8536.20.99*
3006.30.01*           6406.10.01            8536.90.11*
3209.90.99*           7307.22.10*           8536.90.16*
3401.11.01*           8426.41.02            8536.90.17*
3402.12.02*           8426.41.99            8548.90.01*
3402.20.99*           8427.10.03            8548.90.03*
3904.90.99*           8427.10.99            8607.11.01*
3908.10.04*           8427.20.01            8704.23.99*
4819.20.01*           8427.20.01*           8704.32.03*
6401.10.01            8429.20.01*           8704.32.05*
6401.91.01            8481.80.24*           8705.10.01*
6402.92.99            8481.90.04*           8705.20.99*
6402.99.99            8504.40.11*           9032.10.03*
6402.30.99            8509.10.01*           9501.00.02*
6402.91.01            8509.40.01*           9502.10.01*
6402.99.99            8509.40.03*           9503.41.01*
6404.11.99            8509.90.99*
 

Annex II; List of Proposed Subheadings for Which the United States 
Would Accelerate the Elimination of Duties for NAFTA Qualifying Goods 
of Mexico

[[Page 34732]]



6401.10.00            6402.91.90            6404.19.25
6401.91.00            6402.99.20            6404.19.30
6401.92.90            6402.99.30            6404.19.60
6401.99.30            6402.99.60            6404.19.80
6401.99.60            6402.99.70            6404.20.60
6401.99.90            6402.99.80            6404.19.35
6402.30.50            6402.99.90            6404.19.50
6402.30.70            6404.11.20            6404.19.70
6402.30.80            6404.44.50            6404.20.20
6402.30.90            6404.11.60            6404.20.40
6402.91.50            6404.11.70            6406.10.05
6402.91.60            6404.11.80            6406.10.10
6402.91.70            6404.19.15            6406.10.20
6402.91.80            6404.19.20            6406.10.45
 

[FR Doc. 01-16322 Filed 6-28-01; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3901-01-P