[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 35, Number 26 (Monday, July 5, 1999)]
[Pages 1229-1230]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Message to the Congress on Amendment of the Generalized System of 
Preferences

June 30, 1999

To the Congress of the United States:

    The Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) offers duty-free 
treatment to specified products that are imported from designated 
beneficiary developing countries. The GSP is authorized by title V of 
the Trade Act of 1974, as amended.
    I have determined, based on a consideration of the eligibility 
criteria in title V, that Gabon and Mongolia should be added to the list 
of beneficiary developing countries under the GSP.
    I have also determined that the suspension of preferential treatment 
for Mauritania as a beneficiary developing country under the GSP, as 
reported in my letters to the Speaker of the House and President of the 
Senate of June 25, 1993, should be ended. I had determined to suspend 
Mauritania from the GSP because Mauritania had not taken or was not 
taking steps to afford internationally recognized worker rights. I have 
determined that circumstances in Mauritania have changed and that, based 
on a consideration of the eligibility criteria in title V, preferential 
treatment under the GSP for Mauritania as a least-developed beneficiary 
developing country should be restored.

[[Page 1230]]

    This message is submitted in accordance with the requirements of 
title V of the Trade Act of 1974.
                                            William J. Clinton
The White House,
June 30, 1999.

Note: An original was not available for verification of the content of 
this message.