    [Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 44, Number 52 (Monday, January 5, 2009)]
    [Pages 1587-1589]
    [Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

    <R04>
    Proclamation 8332--To Implement the United States-Oman Free Trade
    Agreement

     December 29, 2008

     By the President of the United States

     of America

     A Proclamation

        1. On January 19, 2006, the United States entered into the United
    States-Oman Free Trade Agreement (the ``Agreement''). The Congress
    approved the Agreement in section 101(a) of the United States-Oman Free
    Trade Agreement Implementation Act (the ``Implementation Act'') (Public
    Law 109-283, 120 Stat. 1191) (19 U.S.C. 3805 note).
        2. Section 105(a) of the Implementation 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 Agreement.
        3. Section 201 of the Implementation 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, 2.6, 3.2.8, and 3.2.9, and the
    schedule of duty reductions with respect to Oman set forth in Annex 2-B
    of the Agreement.
        4. Consistent with section 201(a)(2) of the Implementation Act, Oman
    is to be removed from the enumeration of designated beneficiary
    developing countries eligible for the benefits of the Generalized System
    of Preferences (GSP) on the date the Agreement entered into force.
    Further, consistent with section 604 of the Trade Act of 1974, as
    amended (the ``1974 Act'') (19 U.S.C. 2483), I have determined that
    other technical and conforming changes to the Harmonized Tariff Schedule
    of the United States (HTS) are

    [[Page 1588]]

    necessary to reflect that Oman is no longer eligible to receive the
    benefits of the GSP.
        5. Section 202 of the Implementation Act sets forth certain rules
    for determining whether a good is an originating good for the purpose of
    implementing preferential tariff treatment provided for under the
    Agreement. I have decided that it is necessary to include these rules of
    origin, together with particular rules applicable to certain other
    goods, in the HTS.
        6. Section 204 of the Implementation Act authorizes the President to
    take certain enforcement actions relating to trade with Oman in textile
    and apparel goods.
        7. Subtitle B of title III of the Implementation Act authorizes 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.
        8. Executive Order 11651 of March 3, 1972, as amended, established
    the Committee for the Implementation of Textile Agreements (CITA),
    consisting of representatives of the Departments of State, the Treasury,
    Commerce and Labor, and the Office of the United States Trade
    Representative, with the representative of the Department of Commerce as
    Chairman, to supervise the implementation of textile trade agreements.
    Consistent with section 301 of title 3, United States Code, when
    carrying out functions vested in the President by statute and assigned
    by the President to CITA, the officials collectively exercising those
    functions are all to be officers required to be appointed by the
    President with the advice and consent of the Senate.
        9. Section 604 of the 1974 Act, 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 section 604 of the 1974 Act; sections 105(a), 201, 202, and 204, and
    subtitle B of title III, of the Implementation Act; and section 301 of
    title 3, United States Code, and having made the determination under
    section 101(b) of the Implementation Act necessary for the exchange of
    notes, do hereby proclaim:
        (1) In order to provide generally for the preferential tariff
    treatment being accorded under the Agreement, 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
    Agreement, to provide certain other treatment to originating goods of
    Oman for the purposes of the Agreement, to provide tariff-rate quotas
    with respect to certain originating goods of Oman, to reflect Oman's
    removal from the enumeration of designated beneficiary developing
    countries for purposes of the GSP, and to make technical and conforming
    changes in the general notes to the HTS, the HTS is modified as set
    forth in Annex I of Publication 4050 of the United States International
    Trade Commission, entitled, Modifications to the Harmonized Tariff
    Schedule of the United States Implementing the United States-Oman Free
    Trade Agreement (Publication 4050), which is incorporated by reference
    into this proclamation.
        (2) In order to implement the initial stage of duty elimination
    provided for in the Agreement and to provide for future staged
    reductions in duties for originating goods of Oman for purposes of the
    Agreement, the HTS is modified as provided in Annex II of Publication
    4050, 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 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 of Publication 4050.
        (4) The Secretary of Commerce is authorized to exercise my authority
    under section 105(a) of the Implementation Act to establish or designate
    an office within the Department

    [[Page 1589]]

    of Commerce to carry out the functions set forth in that section.

        (5) The CITA is authorized to exercise my authority under section
    204 of the Implementation 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 functions of the
    President under subtitle B of title III of the Implementation 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 thereon; to determine whether imports of an Omani 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.

        (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 twenty-ninth
    day of December, in the year of our Lord two thousand eight, and of the
    Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and thirty-
    third.

                                                    George W. Bush

     [Filed with the Office of the Federal Register, 8:45 a.m., December 30,
    2008]

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