[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 32, Number 49 (Monday, December 9, 1996)]
[Pages 2451-2452]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Proclamation 6962--To Implement the United States-Israel Agreement on 
Trade in Agricultural Products

December 2, 1996

By the President of the United States

of America

A Proclamation

    1. On April 22, 1985, the United States entered into the Agreement 
on the Establishment of a Free Trade Area between the Government of the 
United States of America and the Government of Israel (``the FTA 
Agreement''), approved by the Congress in the United States-Israel Free 
Trade Area Implementation Act of 1985 (``the FTA Act'') (19 U.S.C. 2112 
note).
    2. The United States and Israel acknowledge that they have differing 
interpretations as to the meaning of certain rights and obligations in 
the FTA Agreement, in particular with respect to market access for 
certain United States agricultural products. In order to maintain the 
general level of reciprocal and mutually advantageous concessions with 
respect to agricultural trade with Israel, on November 4, 1996, the 
Government of the United States entered into an agreement with the 
Government of Israel concerning certain aspects of trade in agricultural 
products, effective December 4, 1996, through December 31, 2001 (``the 
1996 Agreement'').
    3. Section 4(b) of the FTA Act provides that, whenever the President 
determines that it is necessary to maintain the general level of 
reciprocal and mutually advantageous concessions with respect to Israel 
provided for by the FTA Agreement, the President may proclaim such 
withdrawal, suspension, modification, or continuance of any duty, or 
such continuance of existing duty-free or excise treatment, or such 
additional duties as the President determines to be required or 
appropriate to carry out the FTA Agreement.
    4. Pursuant to section 4(b) of the FTA Act, I have determined that 
it is necessary, in order to maintain the general level of reciprocal 
and mutually advantageous concessions

[[Page 2452]]

with respect to Israel, to provide through the close of December 31, 
2001, access into the United States customs territory for specified 
quantities of certain agricultural products of Israel free of duty or 
certain fees or other import charges.
    5. Section 604 of the Trade Act of 1974 (19 U.S.C. 2483) (``the 1974 
Act''), authorizes the President to embody in the Harmonized Tariff 
Schedule of the United States (``HTS'') the substance of the relevant 
provisions of that Act, and of other acts affecting import treatment, 
and actions thereunder, including the 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, including but not 
limited to section 4 of the FTA Act and section 604 of the 1974 Act, do 
hereby proclaim:
    (1) In order to implement aspects of the 1996 Agreement with the 
Government of Israel concerning certain aspects of trade in agricultural 
products, the HTS is modified as provided in the Annex to this 
proclamation.
    (2) Any 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.
    (3) The modifications to the HTS made by the Annex to this 
proclamation shall be effective with respect to goods entered, or 
withdrawn from warehouse for consumption, on or after the dates set 
forth in such Annex, and the tariff treatment set forth therein shall be 
effective as provided in such Annex through December 31, 2001.
    In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this second day of 
December, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and ninety-six, and 
of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and 
twenty-first.
                                            William J. Clinton

[Filed with the Office of the Federal Register, 8:45 a.m., December 4, 
1996]

Note: This proclamation was released by the Office of the Press 
Secretary on December 3, and it was published in the Federal Register on 
December 5.