To Implement an Amendment to the Dominican Republic-Central America-United States Free Trade Agreement

Proclamation 8213 of December 20, 2007

To Implement an Amendment to the Dominican
Republic-Central America-United States Free Trade
Agreement

By the President of the United States of America

A Proclamation

1. On August 5, 2004, the United States entered into
the Dominican Republic-Central America-United States
Free Trade Agreement (the ``Agreement'') with Costa
Rica, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala,
Honduras, and Nicaragua (the ``Agreement countries'').
The Congress approved the Agreement in section 101(a)
of the Dominican Republic-Central America-United States
Free Trade Agreement Implementation Act (the ``CAFTA-DR
Act'') (19 U.S.C. 4011).

2. The Parties to the Agreement entered into an
amendment to the Agreement on July 27, August 6, and
August 14, 2007 (the ``Amendment''). The terms of the
Amendment are contained in letters of understanding
between the United States and the Agreement countries
described in sections 1634(a)(2) and 1634(b)(2) of the
Pension Protection Act of 2006 (Public Law 109-280, 120
Stat. 780).

3. Section 1634 of the Pension Protection Act
authorizes the President to proclaim modifications to
the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States
(HTS) as necessary to carry out the understandings
described therein subject, in the case of certain
provisions of the Amendment, to the consultation and
layover requirements in section 104 of the CAFTA-DR Act
(19 U.S.C. 4014).

4. Section 203(o) of the CAFTA-DR Act (19 U.S.C. 4033)
authorizes the President to proclaim, as part of the
HTS, the provisions set out in Annex 4.1 of the
Agreement.

5. 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 3 U.S.C. 301, 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.

6. Section 604 of the Trade Act of 1974, as amended
(the ``1974 Act'') (19 U.S.C. 2483), 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
section 203 of the CAFTA-DR Act, section 1634 of the
Pension Protection 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 modifications
in the 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 preferential tariff treatment for
certain other goods under the Agreement, and to make
technical and conforming changes in the general notes
to the HTS, the HTS is modified as set forth in:

(a) Sections A, B, and C of the Annex to this
proclamation; and

(b) Section D of that Annex.

(2) The modifications to the HTS made by paragraph
(1)(a) of this proclamation shall enter into effect on
the date, as announced by the United States Trade
Representative in the Federal Register, that the
Amendment enters into force and shall be effective with
respect to goods entered, or withdrawn from warehouse
for consumption, on or after that date.

(3) The modifications to the HTS made by paragraph
(1)(b) of this proclamation shall enter into effect on
the date, as announced by the United States Trade
Representative in the Federal Register, that the
Amendment has entered into force and the conditions set
forth in paragraph (a), paragraph (b), or both, of
footnote 1 to Appendix 4.1-B of the Agreement have been
fulfilled, and shall be effective with respect to goods
entered, or withdrawn from warehouse for consumption,
on or after that date.

(4) The CITA is authorized to exercise my authority
under section 203(o) of the CAFTA-DR Act to implement
Appendix 4.1-B of the Agreement by determining whether
and, if so, by what amount, to increase in accordance
with paragraph 3 or footnote 2 of that Appendix the
quantitative limits in the provisions of the HTS set
out in section D of the Annex to this proclamation.

(5)The United States Trade Representative shall modify
U.S. note 21 to subchapter XXII of chapter 98 of the
HTS in a notice published in the Federal Register to
reflect determinations pursuant to paragraph (4) of
this proclamation by the CITA.

(6) Any 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 seven, and of the Independence of the United
States of America the two hundred and thirty-second.

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