[Federal Register Volume 68, Number 250 (Wednesday, December 31, 2003)]
[Presidential Documents]
[Pages 75793-75795]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 03-32320]


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  Federal Register / Vol. 68, No. 250 / Wednesday, December 31, 2003 / 
Presidential Documents  

[[Page 75793]]


                Proclamation 7747 of December 30, 2003

                
To Implement the United States-Singapore Free 
                Trade Agreement

                By the President of the United States of America

                A Proclamation

                1. On May 6, 2003, the President entered into the 
                United States-Singapore Free Trade Agreement (USSFTA). 
                The USSFTA was approved by the Congress in section 
                101(a) of the United States-Singapore Free Trade 
                Agreement Implementation Act (the ``USSFTA Act'') 
                (Public Law 108-78, 117 Stat. 948) (19 U.S.C. 3805 
                note).

                2. Section 105 of the USSFTA 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 20 of the USSFTA.

                3. Section 201 of the USSFTA 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 2.2, 2.5, 2.6, and 2.12 
                of the USSFTA and the schedule of reductions with 
                respect to the Republic of Singapore (Singapore) set 
                forth in Annex 2B of the USSFTA.

                4. Section 202 of the USSFTA Act provides certain rules 
                for determining whether a good is an originating good 
                for the purposes of implementing tariff treatment under 
                the USSFTA. 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 205 of the USSFTA Act authorizes the 
                President to take certain enforcement actions relating 
                to trade with Singapore in textile and apparel goods.

                6. Subtitle B of title III of the USSFTA Act authorizes 
                the President to take certain actions in response to a 
                request by an interested party for relief from imports 
                that constitute a substantial cause of 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, including the removal, modification, 
                continuance, or imposition of any rate of duty or other 
                import restriction.

                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, 201, 202, 205, and 321-328 of the USSFTA 
                Act, section 301 of title 3, United Code, and section 
                604 of the 1974 Act, do proclaim that:

[[Page 75794]]

                    (1) In order to provide generally for the 
                preferential tariff treatment being accorded under the 
                USSFTA, 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 USSFTA, to provide certain other treatment to 
                originating goods for the purposes of the USSFTA, and 
                to provide tariff-rate quotas with respect to certain 
                originating goods, the HTS is modified as set forth in 
                Annex I of Publication 3651 of the United States 
                International Trade Commission, entitled Modifications 
                to the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States 
                Implementing the United States-Singapore Free Trade 
                Agreement (Publication 3651), which is incorporated by 
                reference into this proclamation.
                    (2) In order to implement the initial stage of duty 
                elimination provided for in the USSFTA and to provide 
                for future staged reductions in duties for products of 
                Singapore for purposes of the USSFTA, the HTS is 
                modified as provided in Annex II of Publication 3651, 
                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 USSFTA 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 
                3651.
                    (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, 2004.
                    (5) The CITA is authorized to exercise the 
                authority of the President under section 205 of the 
                USSFTA 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, textile and apparel 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 subtitle B of title 
                III of the USSFTA Act to review requests 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 a Singaporean textile or apparel 
                article constitute a substantial cause of 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.
                    (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.

[[Page 75795]]

                IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this 
                thirtieth day of December, in the year of our Lord two 
                thousand three, and of the Independence of the United 
                States of America the two hundred and twenty-eighth.

                    (Presidential Sig.)B

[FR Doc. 03-32320
Filed 12-30-03; 11:33 am]
Billing code 3195-01-P