[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 34, Number 38 (Monday, September 21, 1998)]
[Pages 1829-1830]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Proclamation 7125--To Modify Certain Provisions of the Special Textile 
and Apparel Regime Implemented Under the North American Free Trade 
Agreement

September 18, 1998

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 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 Presidential 
Proclamation 6641 of December 15, 1993.
    2. Section 201(b)(1)(A) of the NAFTA Implementation Act (19 U.S.C. 
3331(b)(1)(A)) authorizes the President to proclaim such modifications 
or continuation of any duty as the President determines to be necessary 
or appropriate to maintain the general level of reciprocal and mutually 
advantageous concessions with respect to Canada or Mexico provided for 
by the NAFTA, subject to the consultation and layover requirements of 
section 103(a) of the NAFTA Implementation Act (19 U.S.C. 3313(a)). 
Among the provisions previously proclaimed to implement the NAFTA 
schedule of concessions is heading 9802.00.90 of the Harmonized Tariff 
Schedule of the United States (``HTS''), which affords duty-free entry 
into the United States of certain textile and apparel goods assembled in 
Mexico, in which all fabric components were wholly formed and cut in the 
United States and then exported to Mexico ready for assembly and there 
assembled and returned to the U.S. customs territory.
    3. In order to maintain the general level of reciprocal and mutually 
advantageous concessions under the NAFTA, I have determined that new 
provisions should be added to chapter 99 of the HTS to provide that 
specified apparel articles, which are assembled in Mexico using 
interlining fabrics that are cut but not formed in the United States, 
and which otherwise meet the conditions set forth in HTS heading 
9802.00.90, may enter the United States free of duty on a temporary 
basis because the necessary interlining fabrics for such apparel are no 
longer formed in the United States. The consultation and layover 
requirements provided for in section 103(a) of the NAFTA Implementation 
Act have been observed.
    4. Section 604 of the Trade Act of 1974, as amended (19 U.S.C. 2483) 
(``Trade Act''), authorizes the President to embody in the 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, sections 103(a) and 201(b) of the NAFTA Implementation Act, 
section 604 of the Trade Act, and section 301 of title 3, United States 
Code, do proclaim that:
    (1) Subchapter VI of chapter 99 of 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)(a) The modifications to the HTS made by this proclamation shall 
be effective with respect to goods entered, or withdrawn from warehouse 
for consumption, on or after the fifteenth day after the signing of this 
proclamation.

[[Page 1830]]

    (b) At the close of the effective period specified therefor in the 
Annex, HTS subheadings 9906.98.02 and 9906.98.03 shall cease to apply to 
imported articles, except that goods described in such subheadings that 
were shipped and in transit on a through bill of lading on such 
specified date shall be eligible for the tariff treatment specified 
therein as if entered on the last day of such effective period. At the 
close of the day that is one year from the close of the effective period 
specified in such HTS subheadings, U.S. note 28 to subchapter VI of 
chapter 99, such subheadings and their immediately superior text 
beginning with the word ``Apparel'' shall all be deleted from the HTS.
    (c) The United States Trade Representative is authorized, after 
obtaining advice from the appropriate advisory committees established 
under section 135 of the Trade Act (19 U.S.C. 2155), to extend the 
effective period of the new tariff provisions for one additional year, 
upon publication in the Federal Register of a notice modifying the new 
HTS subheadings accordingly.
    In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this eighteenth day 
of September, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and ninety-eight, 
and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred 
and twenty-third.
                                            William J. Clinton

[Filed with the Office of the Federal Register, 8:45 a.m., September 21, 
1998]

Note: This proclamation will be published in the Federal Register on 
September 22.