[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 39, Number 4 (Monday, January 27, 2003)]
[Pages 87-88]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Proclamation 7641--To Modify Rules of Origin Under the North American 
Free Trade Agreement

 January 17, 2003

 By the President of the United States

 of America

 A Proclamation

    1. Presidential Proclamation 6641 of December 15, 1993, implemented 
the North American Free Trade Agreement (the ``NAFTA'') with respect to 
the United States and, pursuant to the North American Free Trade 
Agreement Implementation Act (the ``NAFTA Implementation Act''), 
incorporated in the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States (the 
``HTS'') the tariff modifications and rules of origin necessary or 
appropriate to carry out the NAFTA.
    2. Section 202 of the NAFTA Implementation Act provides rules for 
determining whether goods imported into the United States originate in 
the territory of a NAFTA party and thus are eligible for the tariff and 
other treatment contemplated under the NAFTA. Section 202(q) of the 
NAFTA Implementation Act (19 U.S.C. 3332(q)) authorizes the President to 
proclaim, as a part of the HTS, the rules of origin set out in the NAFTA 
and to proclaim modifications to such previously proclaimed rules of 
origin, subject to the consultation and layover requirements of section 
103(a) of the NAFTA Implementation Act (19 U.S.C. 3313(a)).
    3. I have determined that the modifications to the HTS proclaimed in 
this proclamation pursuant to sections 201 and 202 of the NAFTA 
Implementation Act are appropriate. For goods of Mexico, I have decided 
that the effective date of the modifications shall be determined by the 
United States Trade Representative (USTR).
    4. Section 604 of the Trade Act of 1974, as amended (the ``1974 
Act'') (19 U.S.C. 2483), authorizes the President to embody in the HTS 
the substance of the relevant provisions of that Act, 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, 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, including section 604 of the 1974 Act, 
section 202 of the NAFTA Implementation Act, and section 301 of title 3, 
United States Code, do hereby proclaim:
    (1) In order to modify the rules of origin under the NAFTA, general 
note 12 to 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 made by the Annex to this proclamation shall 
be effective with respect to goods of Canada that are entered, or 
withdrawn from warehouse for consumption, on or after January 1, 2003. 
The modifications made by such Annex shall be effective with respect to 
goods of Mexico that are entered, or withdrawn from warehouse for 
consumption, on or after a date to be announced in the Federal Register 
by the USTR.
    In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this seventeenth day 
of January, in the year of our Lord two thousand three, and of the 
Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and twenty-
seventh.
                                                George W. Bush

 [Filed with the Office of the Federal Register, 8:45 a.m., January 22, 
2003]

Note: This proclamation was published in the Federal Register on January 
23. This item was not

[[Page 88]]

received in time for publication in the appropriate issue.