    [Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 40, Number 52 (Monday, December 27, 2004)]
    [Pages 3007-3009]
    [Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

    <R04>
    Proclamation 7857--To Implement the United States-Australia Free Trade
    Agreement

     December 20, 2004

     By the President of the United States

    of America

    A Proclamation

        1. On May 18, 2004, the United States entered into the United
    States-Australia Free Trade Agreement (USAFTA). The USAFTA was approved
    by the Congress in section 101(a) of the United States-Australia Free
    Trade Agreement Implementation Act (the ``USAFTA Act'') (Public Law 108-
    286, 118 Stat. 919) (19 U.S.C. 3805 note).
        2. Section 105(a) of the USAFTA 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 21 of the USAFTA.
        3. Section 201 of the USAFTA 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 2.3, 2.5, and 2.6, and the schedule of
    reductions with respect to Australia set forth in Annex 2-B, of the
    USAFTA.
        4. Section 203 of the USAFTA Act provides certain rules for
    determining whether a good is an originating good for the purpose of
    implementing preferential tariff treatment under the USAFTA. 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 206 of the USAFTA Act authorizes the President to take
    certain enforcement actions relating to trade with Australia in textile
    and apparel goods.
        6. Sections 321-328 of the USAFTA Act authorize the President to
    take certain actions in response to a request by an interested party for
    relief from serious damage or actual threat thereof to a domestic
    industry producing certain textile or apparel articles.

    [[Page 3008]]

        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.
        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(a), 201, 203, 206, and 321-328 of the USAFTA Act, section
    301 of title 3, United States 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 USAFTA, 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
    USAFTA, to provide certain other treatment to originating goods for the
    purposes of the USAFTA, and to provide tariff-rate quotas with respect
    to certain originating goods, the HTS is modified as set forth in Annex
    I of Publication No. 3722 of the United States International Trade
    Commission, entitled Modifications to the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of
    the United States Implementing the United States-Australia Free Trade
    Agreement (Publication 3722), which is incorporated by reference into
    this proclamation.
        (2) In order to implement the initial stage of duty elimination
    provided for in the USAFTA, to provide tariff-rate quotas with respect
    to certain originating goods, and to provide for future staged
    reductions in duties for originating products of Australia for purposes
    of the USAFTA, the HTS is modified as provided in Annex II of
    Publication 3722, 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 USAFTA 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 3722.
        (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, 2005.
        (5) The CITA is authorized to exercise the authority of the
    President under section 206 of the USAFTA 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, 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 sections 321-328 of the USAFTA Act to review requests,
    including allegations of critical circumstances, 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 an Australian textile or apparel article
    are causing 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; and if critical
    circumstances are alleged, to determine whether there is clear evidence
    that imports from Australia have increased as the result of the
    reduction or elimination of a customs duty under the USAFTA, whether
    there is clear evidence that such imports are causing serious damage, or
    actual threat thereof, to a domestic industry producing an article that
    is like, or directly competitive with, the imported article, and whether
    delay in taking

    [[Page 3009]]

    action would cause damage to that industry that would be difficult to
    repair; and to provide provisional relief with respect to imports that
    are subject to an affirmative determination of critical circumstances
    that is necessary to remedy or prevent the serious damage.
        (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 twentieth day
    of December, in the year of our Lord two thousand four, and of the
    Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and twenty-
    ninth.
                                                    George W. Bush

    [Filed with the Office of the Federal Register, 8:45 a.m., December 22,
    2004]

    Note: This proclamation was published in the Federal Register on
    December 23.