Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 40 Issue 52 (Monday, December 27, 2004)

[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.