To Implement the United States-Chile Free Trade Agreement

Proclamation 7746 of December 30, 2003

To Implement the United States-Chile Free Trade
Agreement

By the President of the United States of America

A Proclamation

1. On June 6, 2003, the United States entered into the
United States-Chile Free Trade Agreement (USCFTA). The
Congress approved the USCFTA in section 101(a) of the
United States-Chile Free Trade Agreement Implementation
Act (the ``USCFTA Act'') (Public Law 108-77, 117 Stat.
909) (19 U.S.C. 3805 note).

2. Section 105 of the USCFTA 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 22 of the USCFTA.

3. Section 201 of the USCFTA 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 3.3 (including the schedule of United
States duty reductions with respect to originating
goods set forth in Annex 3.3 to the USCFTA), 3.7, 3.9,
and 3.20(8), (9), (10), and (11) of the USCFTA.

4. Section 202 of the USCFTA Act provides certain rules
for determining whether a good is an originating good
for the purpose of implementing tariff treatment under
the USCFTA. 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. Consistent with section 201(a)(2) of the USCFTA Act,
Chile is to be removed from the enumeration of
designated beneficiary developing countries eligible
for the benefits of the Generalized System of
Preferences (GSP). Further, consistent with section 604
of the Trade Act of 1974 (the ``1974 Act'') (19 U.S.C.
2483), as amended, I have determined that other
technical and conforming changes to the HTS are
necessary to reflect that Chile is no longer eligible
to receive benefits of the GSP.

6. Section 208 of the USCFTA Act authorizes the
President to direct the Secretary of the Treasury to
take certain actions related to verifications conducted
consistent with Article 3.21 of the USCFTA.

7. Subtitle B of title III of the USCFTA Act authorizes
the President to take certain actions in response to a
request by an interested party for relief from imports
that are a cause of 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,
establishes the Committee for the Implementation of
Textile Agreements (CITA) to supervise the
implementation of textile trade agreements.

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
sections 105, 201, 202, and 208 of the USCFTA Act,
section 604 of the 1974 Act, and section 301 of title
3, United States Code, do proclaim that:

(1) In order to provide generally for the
preferential tariff treatment being accorded under the
USCFTA, 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 USCFTA, to provide certain other treatment to
originating goods for the purposes of the USCFTA, to
provide tariff-rate quotas with respect to certain
originating goods, to reflect Chile'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 3652 of the United States International
Trade Commission, entitled Modifications of the
Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States
Implementing the United States- Chile Free Trade
Agreement (Publication 3652), which is incorporated by
reference into this proclamation.
(2) In order to implement the initial stage of duty
elimination provided for in the USCFTA, and to provide
for future staged reductions in duties for products of
Chile for purposes of the USCFTA, the HTS is modified
as provided in Annex II of Publication 3652, 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 USCFTA Act to establish or designate an
office within the Department of Commerce to carry out
the functions set forth in that section.
(4) The CITA is authorized to exercise the
authority of the President under section 208 of the
USCFTA Act with respect to verifications conducted in a
manner consistent with article 3.21 of the USCFTA.
(5) The CITA is authorized to exercise the
authority of the President under subtitle B of title
III of the USCFTA 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; to determine
whether a Chilean textile or apparel article is being
imported into the United States in such increased
quantities and under such conditions as to cause
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.
(6)(a) The amendments to the HTS made by paragraph
(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 3652.
(b) Except as provided in paragraph (6)(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, 2004.
(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
thirtieth day of December, in the year of our Lord two
thousand three, and of the Independence of the United
States of America the two hundred and twenty-eighth.

(Presidential Sig.)B