[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 33, Number 31 (Monday, August 4, 1997)]
[Pages 1166-1167]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Proclamation 7016--To Implement an Accelerated Schedule of Duty 
Elimination Under the North American Free Trade Agreement

July 31, 1997

By the President of the United States

of America

A Proclamation

    1. On December 17, 1992, the Governments of Canada, Mexico, and the 
United States of America entered into the North American Free Trade 
Agreement (``the NAFTA''). The NAFTA was approved by the Congress in 
section 101(a) of the North American Free Trade Agreement Implementation 
Act (``the NAFTA Implementation Act'') (19 U.S.C. 3311(a)) and was 
implemented with respect to the United States by Proclamation 6641 of 
December 15, 1993.
    2. Section 201(b) of the NAFTA Implementation Act (19 U.S.C. 
3331(b)) authorizes the President, subject to the consultation and 
layover requirements of section 103(a) of the NAFTA Implementation Act 
(19 U.S.C. 3313(a)), to proclaim accelerated schedules for duty 
elimination that the United States may agree to with Mexico or Canada. 
Consistent with Article 302(3) of the NAFTA, I, through my duly 
empowered representative, on March 20, 1997, entered into an agreement 
with the Government of Canada and the Government of Mexico providing for 
an accelerated schedule of duty elimination for

[[Page 1167]]

specific goods. Consultation and layover requirements of section 103(a) 
of the NAFTA Implementation Act with respect to such schedule of duty 
elimination have been satisfied.
    3. Pursuant to section 201(b) of the NAFTA Implementation Act, I 
have determined that the modifications hereinafter proclaimed of duties 
on goods originating in the territory of a NAFTA party are necessary or 
appropriate to (i) maintain the general level of reciprocal and mutually 
advantageous concessions with respect to Canada and Mexico provided for 
by the NAFTA and (ii) to carry out the agreement with Canada and Mexico 
providing an accelerated schedule of duty elimination for specific 
goods.
    4. Section 604 of the Trade Act of 1974, as amended (19 U.S.C. 2483) 
(``the Trade Act''), authorizes the President to embody in the 
Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States (``the HTS'') the 
substance of the relevant provisions of 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 201(b) of the NAFTA Implementation Act and section 
604 of the Trade Act, do proclaim that:
    (1) In order to provide for an accelerated schedule of duty 
elimination for specific goods, the tariff treatment set forth in the 
HTS for certain NAFTA originating goods 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 amendments made to the HTS by the Annex to this proclamation 
shall be effective with respect to goods entered, or withdrawn from 
warehouse for consumption, on or after July 1, 1997.
    In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this thirty-first 
day of July, 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-second.
                                            William J. Clinton

[Filed with the Office of the Federal Register, 8:45 a.m., August 1, 
1997]

Note: This proclamation and attached annex were published in the Federal 
Register on August 4.