[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.