Proclamation 2761A—Carrying Out General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade Concluded at Geneva, October 30, 1947

Whereas section 350(a) and (b) of the Tariff Act of 1930, as amended by section 1 of the act of June 12, 1934 entitled "AN ACT To amend the Tariff Act of 1930," by the Joint Resolution approved June 7, 1943, and by section 2 of the Act of July 5, 1945, provides as follows:

SEC. 350. (a) For the purpose of expanding foreign markets for the products of the United States (as a means of assisting in the present emergency in restoring the American standard of living, in overcoming domestic unemployment and the present economic depression, in increasing the purchasing power of the American public, and in establishing and maintaining a better relationship among various branches of American agriculture, industry, mining, and commerce) by regulating the admission of foreign goods into the United States in accordance with the characteristics and needs of various branches of American production so that foreign markets will be made available to those branches of American production which require and are capable of developing such outlets by affording corresponding market opportunities for foreign products in the United States, the President, whenever he finds as a fact that any existing duties or other import restrictions of the United States or any foreign country are unduly burdening and restricting the foreign trade of the United States and that the purpose above declared will be promoted by the means hereinafter specified, is authorized from time to time -

(1) To enter into foreign trade agreements with foreign governments or instrumentalities thereof; and

(2) To proclaim such modifications of existing duties and other import restrictions, or such additional import restrictions, or such continuance, and for such minimum periods, of existing customs or excise treatment of any article covered by foreign trade agreements, as are required or appropriate to carry out any foreign trade agreement that the President has entered into hereunder. No proclamation shall be made increasing or decreasing by more than 50 per centum any rate of duty, however established, existing on January 1, 1945 (even though temporarily suspended by Act of Congress), or transferring any article between the dutiable and free lists. The proclaimed duties and other import restrictions shall apply to articles the growth, produce, or manufacture of all foreign countries, whether imported directly, or indirectly: Provided, That the President may suspend the application to articles the growth, produce, or manufacture of any country because of its discriminatory treatment of American commerce or because of other acts (including the operations of international cartels) or policies which in his opinion tend to defeat the purposes set forth in this section; and the proclaimed duties and other import restrictions shall be in effect from and after such time as is specified in the proclamation. The President may at any time terminate any such proclamation in whole or in part.

(b) Nothing in this section shall be construed to prevent the application, with respect to rates of duty established under this section pursuant to agreements with countries other than Cuba, of the provisions of the treaty of commercial reciprocity concluded between the United States and the Republic of Cuba on December 11, 1902, or to preclude giving effect to an exclusive agreement with Cuba concluded under this section, modifying the existing preferential customs treatment of any article the growth, produce, or manufacture of Cuba: Provided, That the duties on such an article shall in no case be increased or decreased by more than 50 per centum of the duties, however established, existing on January 1, 1945 (even though temporarily suspended by Act of Congress). (48 Stat. 943 and 944, ch. 474, 57 Stat. 125, ch. 118, 59 Stat. 410 and 411, ch. 269; 19 U.S.C. (1940) 1351(a), 19 U.S.C. (1940) Supp. V, 1351(a)(2) and (b).);

Whereas the period within which the President is authorized to enter into trade agreements under said section 350(a) was extended by section 1 of the Act of July 5, 1945 until the expiration of three years from June 12, 1945 (48 Stat. 944, ch. 474, 59 Stat. 410, ch. 269; 19 U.S.C. (1940) Supp. V, 1352(c),);

Whereas section 304 of the Tariff Act of 1930, as amended by section 3 of the Customs Administrative Act of 1938, provides in part as follows:

(a) * * * The Secretary of the Treasury may be regulations

* * * * *

(3) Authorize the exception of any article from the requirements of marking if--

* * * * *

(J) Such article is of a class or kind with respect to which the Secretary of the Treasury has given notice by publication in the weekly Treasury Decisions within two years after July 1, 1937, that articles of such class or kind were imported in substantial quantities during the five-year period immediately preceding January 1, 1937, and were not required during such period to be marked to indicate their origin: Provided, That this subdivision (J) shall not apply after September 1, 1938, to sawed lumber and timers, telephone, trolley, electric-light, and telegraph poles of wood, and bundles of shingles; but the President is authorized to suspend the effectiveness of this proviso if he finds such action required to carry out any trade agreement entered into under the authority of the Act of June 12, 1934 (U.S.C., 1934 edition, title 19, secs. 1351-1354), as extended. (52 Stat. 1077 and 1078, ch. 679; 19 U.S.C. (1940) 1304(a)(3)(J).);

Whereas I, Harry S. Truman, President of the United States of America, have found as a fact that certain existing duties and other import restrictions of the United States of America, the Commonwealth of Australia, the Kingdom of Belgium, the United States of Brazil, Burma, Canada, Ceylon, the Republic of Chile, the Republic of China, the Republic of Cuba, the Czechoslovak Republic, the French Republic, India, Lebanon, the Grand-Duchy of Luxemburg, the Kingdom of the Netherlands, New Zealand, the Kingdom of Norway, Pakistan, Southern Rhodesia, Syria, the Union of South Africa, and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland are unduly burdening and restricting the foreign trade of the United States of America and that the purpose declared in said section 350(a) of the Tariff Act of 1930, as amended, will be promoted by a trade agreement between the Government of the United States of America and the Governments of some or all of the above-named countries;

Whereas reasonable public notice of the intention to negotiate such trade agreement was given and the views presented by persons interested in the negotiation thereof were received and considered;

Whereas, after seeking and obtaining information and advice with respect thereto from the United States Tariff Commission, the Departments of State, Agriculture, Commerce, the Army, and the Navy, and from other sources, on October 30, 1947 I entered, through my duly empowered Plenipotentiary, into a trade agreement with the Governments of the above-named countries, which trade agreement, consisting of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade including nine annexes and twenty schedules and the related Protocol of Provisional Application of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, together with the Final Act Adopted at the Conclusion of the Second Session of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Employment which authenticated the texts of said general agreement is authentic in the English and French languages as indicated and is embodied in the document annexed to this proclamation;

Whereas the Governments of the United States of America, the Commonwealth of Australia, Canada, and the Grand-Duchy of Luxemburg, and, in respect of their respective metropolitan territories, the Governments of the Kingdom of Belgium, the French Republic, the Kingdom of the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, having signed said protocol prior to November 15, 1947, will apply provisionally, on and after January 1, 1948, pursuant to paragraph 1 thereof, (a) parts I and III of said general agreement and (b) part II thereof to the fullest extent not inconsistent with existing legislation;

Whereas I determine, in accordance with the provisions of article XXVII of said general agreement, that the concessions provided for in part I of schedule XX of said general agreement which are identified in the following list should not be applied so long as such concessions are identified in such list;

Whereas I find that such modifications of existing duties and other import restrictions and such continuance of existing customs or excise treatment of articles are hereinafter proclaimed will be required or appropriate, on and after January 1, 1948, to carry out said trade agreement;

And Whereas I find that the suspension of the effectiveness of the proviso to subdivision (J) of section 304(a)(3) of the Tariff Act of 1930, as amended, is required, except with respect to bundles of red-cedar shingles, to carry out said trade agreement:

Now, Therefore, be it known that I, Harry S. Truman, President of the United States of America, to the end that said trade agreement may be carried out and acting under the authority of the said sections 304 and 350 of the Tariff Act of 1930, as amended, do hereby proclaim, effective on and after January 1, 1948 and subject to the provisions of said protocol and to the exceptions and conditions set forth in subdivisions (a), (b), and (c) below, such modifications of existing duties and other import restrictions of the United States of America and such continuance of existing customs or excise treatment of articles imported into the United States of America as are specified or provided for in parts I, II, and III, annexes D, H, and I, and part I of, and the general notes in, schedule XX of said general agreement:

(a) The rates of duty and import tax specified in the column at the right of the respective descriptions of products in part I of schedule XX of the said general agreement shall be applied, subject to the applicable terms, conditions, and qualifications set forth in that schedule and in parts I, II, or III of that agreement, to all articles of the kinds provided for in the said descriptions, except that no such rate shall be applied to a particular article by virtue of this proclamation if, when the article is entered, or withdrawn from warehouse, for consumption,--

(I) The rate represents a concession identified in the list set forth in the 8th recital of this proclamation,

(II) The rate is specified in item 720(a), item 745, item 806(b), or the first item 1529(a) in part I of schedule XX of said general agreement as set forth in the document annexed to this proclamation or

(III) More favorable customs treatment is prescribed for the article by a statute, proclamation, or executive order then in effect;

(b) The rates of duty specified in the 9th recital of this proclamation shall be applied respectively to the articles described in the column at the left of such rates as though the said rates, descriptions, and related paragraph numbers appeared in part I of schedule XX of said general agreement; and

(c) Nothing in this proclamation shall be construed as authorizing the application of any rate of duty or import tax computed on the basis of the provisions of article I of the said general agreement, except such rates as may hereafter be proclaimed pursuant to the provisions of section 350, Tariff Act of 1930, as amended;

And I do further proclaim that, on and after January 1, 1948, the effectiveness of said proviso to subdivision (J) of section 304(a)(3) of the Tariff Act of 1930, as amended, shall be suspended, except with respect to bundles of red-cedar shingles.

In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the Seal of the United States of America to be affixed.

Done at the City of Washington this sixteenth day of December, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and forty-seven and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred and seventy-second.

HARRY S. TRUMAN

By the President:

ROBERT A. LOVETT,

Acting Secretary of State.