Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 105 Part 3.djvu/809

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.

PROCLAMATION 6343—SEPT. 28, 1991 105 STAT. 2693 10. In order to implement the tariff treatment provided for in CBERA, the 1990 Act, and the Budget Act, it is necessary to embody in the HTS the substance of the provisions of these acts. In addition, in order to clarify the preferential tariff treatment accorded under the CBERA, it is necessary to modify provisions of the general notes to the HTS to conform them to CBERA as amended by the 1990 Act. 11. Section 242 of the Compact of Free Association (the Compact) entered into by the Government of the United States and the Governments of the Marshall Islands and of the Federated States of Micronesia (the freely associated states), as given effect by section 401 of the Compact of Free Association Act of 1985 (the Association Act) (Public Law 99-239), requires the President to proclaim that articles imported from the freely associated states shall, under specified conditions, receive duty-free freatment subject to the limitations imposed under sections 503(b) and 504(c) of the Trade Act of 1974 (the 1974 Act) (19 U.S.C. 2463(b), 2464(c)). 12. Section 243 of the Compact, as given effect by section 401(b) of the Association Act, provides that certain articles imported from the freely associated states are to be excluded from the duty-free treatment proclaimed by the President and are to receive most-favored-nation (MFN) tariff treatment. Section 401(a) of the Association Act provides that only canned tima provided for in item 112.30 of the Tariff Schedules of the United States (TSUS) that is imported from the freely associated states during any calendar year in an aggregate quantity not to exceed 10 percent of the U.S. consiunption of canned tuna during the immediately preceding calendar year, as reported by the National Marine Fisheries Service, may be entered free of duty. In addition, section 401(a) of the Association Act further provides that canned tuna imports from the freely associated states entering free of duty shall be counted against the aggregate quantity of canned tuna that is dutiable under rate coliunn numbered 1 for TSUS item 112.30 for that calendar year. The effect of this provision is that the tariff-rate quota of TSUS item 112.30 would have been available to imported canned tima during any calendar year only to the extent that the quantity of canned tuna from the freely associated states that entered free of duty during the calendar year pursuant to section 401(a) of the Association Act was less than the aggregate quantity of canned tuna, if any, dutiable under TSUS item 112.30 for tiiat calendar year. 13. The foregoing exclusions and restrictions are set forth in terms of the TSUS. The United States converted from the TSUS to the HTS ef- fective January 1, 1989. Proclamation No. 6030 of September 28, 1989, incorporated into the HTS the exclusions and restrictions set out in section 401 of the Association Act, but did not clarify the manner in which canned tuna from the freely associated states shall be accorded limited duty-free treatment as set forth in section 401 of the Association Act. Therefore, modifications to general note 3(c)(viii) to the HTS and to chapter 16 of the HTS are appropriate in order to clarify the manner in which the provisions of section 401 of the Association Act relating to canned tuna shall be administered. 14. Pursuant to section 4 of the United States-Israel Free Trade Area Implementation Act of 1985 (the Israel Act) (19 U.S.C. 2112 note), the President proclaimed, in Proclamation No. 5365 of August 30, 1985, changes in tariff freatment which the President determined were re-