[Federal Register Volume 73, Number 251 (Wednesday, December 31, 2008)]
[Presidential Documents]
[Pages 80289-80291]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E8-31234]


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  Federal Register / Vol. 73, No. 251 / Wednesday, December 31, 2008 / 
Presidential Documents  

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 Title 3--
 The President

[[Page 80289]]

                Proclamation 8332 of December 29, 2008

                
To Implement The United States-Oman Free Trade 
                Agreement

                By the President of the United States of America

                A Proclamation

                1. On January 19, 2006, the United States entered into 
                the United States-Oman Free Trade Agreement (the 
                ``Agreement''). The Congress approved the Agreement in 
                section 101(a) of the United States-Oman Free Trade 
                Agreement Implementation Act (the ``Implementation 
                Act'') (Public Law 109-283, 120 Stat. 1191) (19 U.S.C. 
                3805 note).

                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 20 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, 2.6, 3.2.8, 
                and 3.2.9, and the schedule of duty reductions with 
                respect to Oman set forth in Annex 2-B of the 
                Agreement.

                4. Consistent with section 201(a)(2) of the 
                Implementation Act, Oman is to be removed from the 
                enumeration of designated beneficiary developing 
                countries eligible for the benefits of the Generalized 
                System of Preferences (GSP) on the date the Agreement 
                entered into force. Further, consistent with section 
                604 of the Trade Act of 1974, as amended (the ``1974 
                Act'') (19 U.S.C. 2483), I have determined that other 
                technical and conforming changes to the Harmonized 
                Tariff Schedule of the United States (HTS) are 
                necessary to reflect that Oman is no longer eligible to 
                receive the benefits of the GSP.

                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 HTS.

                6. Section 204 of the Implementation Act authorizes the 
                President to take certain enforcement actions relating 
                to trade with Oman in textile and apparel goods.

                7. Subtitle B 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.

                8. 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 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

[[Page 80290]]

                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.

                9. Section 604 of the 1974 Act, 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 
                section 604 of the 1974 Act; sections 105(a), 201, 202, 
                and 204, and subtitle B 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 Oman for the purposes of the 
                Agreement, to provide tariff-rate quotas with respect 
                to certain originating goods of Oman, to reflect Oman's 
                removal from the enumeration of designated beneficiary 
                developing countries for purposes of the GSP, and to 
                make technical and conforming changes in the general 
                notes to the HTS, the HTS is modified as set forth in 
                Annex I of Publication 4050 of the United States 
                International Trade Commission, entitled, Modifications 
                to the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States 
                Implementing the United States-Oman Free Trade 
                Agreement (Publication 4050), 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 Oman for purposes of the 
                Agreement, the HTS is modified as provided in Annex II 
                of Publication 4050, 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 Annex II of Publication 4050.

                (4) The Secretary of Commerce is authorized to exercise 
                my authority 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 my authority 
                under section 204 of the Implementation 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, 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 functions of 
                the President under subtitle B of title III of the 
                Implementation 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 thereon; to determine 
                whether imports of an Omani textile or apparel article 
                are causing serious damage, or actual threat thereof, 
                to a domestic industry producing an article

[[Page 80291]]

                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.

                 IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this 
                twenty-ninth day of December, in the year of our Lord 
                two thousand eight, and of the Independence of the 
                United States of America the two hundred and thirty-
                third.
                
                
                    (Presidential Sig.)

[FR Doc. E8-31234
Filed 12-30-08; 8:45 am]
Billing code 3195-W9-P