[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 40, Number 1 (Monday, January 5, 2004)]
[Pages 3-5]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Proclamation 7747--To Implement the United States-Singapore Free Trade 
Agreement

 December 30, 2003

 By the President of the United States

 of America

 A Proclamation

    1. On May 6, 2003, the President entered into the United States-
Singapore Free Trade Agreement (USSFTA). The USSFTA was approved by the 
Congress in section 101(a) of the United States-Singapore Free Trade 
Agreement Implementation Act (the ``USSFTA Act'') (Public Law 108-78, 
117 Stat. 948) (19 U.S.C. 3805 note).
    2. Section 105 of the USSFTA Act authorizes the President to 
establish or designate within the Department of Commerce an office that 
shall be responsible for providing administrative assistance to panels 
established under Chapter 20 of the USSFTA.
    3. Section 201 of the USSFTA Act authorizes the President to 
proclaim such modifications or continuation of any duty, such 
continuation of duty-free or excise treatment, or such additional 
duties, as the President determines to be necessary or appropriate to 
carry out or apply articles 2.2, 2.5, 2.6, and 2.12 of the USSFTA and 
the schedule of reductions with respect to the Republic of Singapore 
(Singapore) set forth in Annex 2B of the USSFTA.
    4. Section 202 of the USSFTA Act provides certain rules for 
determining whether a good is an originating good for the purposes of 
implementing tariff treatment under the USSFTA. I have decided that it 
is necessary to include these rules of origin, together with particular 
rules applicable to certain other goods, in the Harmonized Tariff 
Schedule of the United States (HTS).
    5. Section 205 of the USSFTA Act authorizes the President to take 
certain enforcement actions relating to trade with Singapore in textile 
and apparel goods.
    6. Subtitle B of title III of the USSFTA Act authorizes the 
President to take certain

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actions in response to a request by an interested party for relief from 
imports that constitute a substantial cause of serious damage, or actual 
threat thereof, to a domestic industry producing certain textile or 
apparel articles.
    7. Executive Order 11651 of March 3, 1972, as amended, establishes 
the Committee for the Implementation of Textile Agreements (CITA) to 
supervise the implementation of textile trade agreements.
    8. Section 604 of the Trade Act of 1974 (the ``1974 Act'') (19 
U.S.C. 2483), as amended, authorizes the President to embody in the HTS 
the substance of relevant provisions of that Act, or other acts 
affecting import treatment, and of actions taken 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 of America, including but not limited to 
sections 105, 201, 202, 205, and 321-328 of the USSFTA Act, section 301 
of title 3, United Code, and section 604 of the 1974 Act, do proclaim 
that:
    (1) In order to provide generally for the preferential tariff 
treatment being accorded under the USSFTA, to set forth rules for 
determining whether goods imported into the customs territory of the 
United States are eligible for preferential tariff treatment under the 
USSFTA, to provide certain other treatment to originating goods for the 
purposes of the USSFTA, and to provide tariff-rate quotas with respect 
to certain originating goods, the HTS is modified as set forth in Annex 
I of Publication 3651 of the United States International Trade 
Commission, entitled Modifications to the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of 
the United States Implementing the United States-Singapore Free Trade 
Agreement (Publication 3651), which is incorporated by reference into 
this proclamation.
    (2) In order to implement the initial stage of duty elimination 
provided for in the USSFTA and to provide for future staged reductions 
in duties for products of Singapore for purposes of the USSFTA, the HTS 
is modified as provided in Annex II of Publication 3651, effective on 
the dates specified in the relevant sections of such publication and on 
any subsequent dates set forth for such duty reductions in that 
publication.
    (3) The Secretary of Commerce is authorized to exercise the 
authority of the President under section 105(a) of the USSFTA Act to 
establish or designate an office within the Department of Commerce to 
carry out the functions set forth in that section.
    (4) (a) The amendments to the HTS made by paragraphs (1) and (2) of 
this proclamation shall be effective with respect to goods entered, or 
withdrawn from warehouse for consumption, on or after the relevant dates 
indicated in Annex II to Publication 3651.
    (b) Except as provided in paragraph (4)(a) of this proclamation, 
this proclamation shall be effective with respect to goods entered, or 
withdrawn from warehouse for consumption, on or after January 1, 2004.
    (5) The CITA is authorized to exercise the authority of the 
President under section 205 of the USSFTA Act to exclude textile and 
apparel goods from the customs territory of the United States; to 
determine whether an enterprise's production of, and capability to 
produce, textile and apparel goods are consistent with statements by the 
enterprise; to find that an enterprise has knowingly or willfully 
engaged in circumvention; and to deny preferential tariff treatment to 
textile and apparel goods.
    (6) The CITA is authorized to exercise the authority of the 
President under subtitle B of title III of the USSFTA Act to review 
requests and to determine whether to commence consideration of such 
requests; to cause to be published in the Federal Register a notice of 
commencement of consideration of a request and notice seeking public 
comment; to determine whether imports of a Singaporean textile or 
apparel article constitute a substantial cause of serious damage, or 
actual threat thereof, to a domestic industry producing an article that 
is like, or directly competitive with, the imported article; and to 
provide relief from imports of an article that is the subject of such a 
determination.

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    (7) All 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.
    In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this thirtieth day 
of December, in the year of our Lord two thousand three, and of the 
Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and twenty-
eighth.
                                                George W. Bush

 [Filed with the Office of the Federal Register, 11:33 a.m., December 
30, 2003]

Note: This proclamation was published in the Federal Register on 
December 31, 2003.