Proclamation 3143—Withdrawal of Trade Agreement Concession and Adjustment in Rate of Duty with Respect to Toweling of Flax, Hemp, or Ramie

1. Whereas, under the authority vested in him by the Constitution and the statutes, including section 350 (a) of the Tariff Act of 1930, as amended, the President on October 30, 1947, entered into a trade agreement with certain foreign countries, which trade agreement consists of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade and the related Protocol of Provisional Application thereof, together with the Final Act Adopted at the Conclusion of the Second Session of the Preparatory Committee of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Employment (61 Stat. (Parts 5 and 6) A7, All, and A2050), and, by Proclamation No. 2761A of December 16, 1947 (61 Stat. 1103), proclaimed such modifications of existing duties and other import restrictions of the United States and such continuance of existing customs or excise treatment of articles imported into the United States as were then found to be required or appropriate to carry out the said trade agreement on and after January 1, 1948;

2. Whereas item 1010 in Part I of Schedule XX (original) annexed to the said General Agreement (61 Stat. (Part 5) Al264) reads as follows:

3. Whereas, in accordance with Article II of the said General Agreement and by virtue of the said Proclamation No. 2761A, the United States duty treatment of toweling (i. e. fabrics chiefly used for making towels) of flax, hemp, or ramie, or of which these substances or any of them is the component material of chief value, described in the said item 1010 is the application to the said toweling of the rate of duty specified in the column designated "Rate of Duty" in the said item 1010, which treatment reflects the duty concessim granted in the said General Agreement with respect to the said toweling;

4. Whereas the United States Tariff Commission has submitted to me its report of an investigation, including a hearing, under section 7 of the Trade Agreements Extension Act of 1951, as amended (65 Stat. 72; 67 Stat. 472; 69 Stat. 162), on the basis of which it has found that the said toweling is, as a result in part of the duty reflecting the concession granted thereon in the said General Agreement, being imported into the United States in such increased quantities, both actual and relative, as to cause serious injury to the domestic industry producing like or directly competitive products;

5. Whereas the said Tariff Commission has further found that in order to remedy the serious injury to the said domestic industry it is necessary to restore the rate of duty originally imposed on the said toweling by paragraph 1010 of the Tariff Act of 1930, namely, 40 per centum ad valorem, and has accordingly recommended the withdrawal of the duty concession granted in the said General Agreement with respect to the said toweling;

6. Whereas, I find that the withdrawal for an indefinite period of the duty concession granted in the said General Agreement with respect to the said toweling, to permit the application to such products of the original rate of duty imposed thereon under paragraph 1010 of the Tariff Act of 1930, is necessary to remedy the serious injury to the said domestic industry; and

7. Whereas upon the withdrawal of the said concession the rate of duty which will apply to the said toweling will be 40 per centum ad valorem:

Now, Therefore, I, Dwight D. Eisenhower, President of the United States of America, acting under the authority vested in me by section 350 of the Tariff Act of 1930, as amended, and section 7 (c) of the Trade Agreements Extension Act of 1951, and in accordance with the provisions of Article XIX of the said General Agreement, do proclaim that, effective after the close of business July 25, 1956, and until otherwise proclaimed by the President, the duty concession granted in the said General Agreement with respect to toweling (i.e. fabrics chiefly used for making towels) of flax, hemp, or ramie, or of which these substances or any of them is the component material of chief value, described in item 1010 in Part I of Schedule XX (original) of the said General Agreement, shall be withdrawn, and Proclamation No. 2761A of December 16, 1947, shall be suspended insofar as it applies to the said toweling described in the said item 1010.

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 25th day of June in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and fifty-six, and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred and eightieth.

DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER

By the President:

JOHN FOSTER DULLES,

Secretary of State