Proclamation 3431—Carrying Out Agreement Granting Concession to Compensate in Part for Escape-Clause Action on Spring Clothespins

1. Whereas, pursuant to the authority vested in him by the Constitution and the statutes, including section 350 of the Tariff Act of 1930, as amended (48 Stat. (pt. 1) 943, 57 Stat. (pt. 1) 125, 59 Stat. (pt. 1) 410), the President, on October 30, 1947, entered into a trade agreement with certain foreign countries, which consists of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (hereinafter referred to as the General Agreement), including a Schedule of United States Concessions and the Protocol of Provisional Application of the General Agreement, together with a Final Act (61 Stat. (pts. 5 and 6) A7, A11, and A2051);

2. Whereas by Proclamation No. 2761A of December 16, 1947 (61 Stat. (pt. 2) 1103), the President proclaimed 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 were then found to be required or appropriate to carry out the trade agreement specified in the first recital of this proclamation on and after January 1, 1948, which proclamation has been supplemented and amended by subsequent proclamations;

3. Whereas, the period for the exercise of the authority to enter into foreign-trade agreements pursuant to section 350 of the Tariff Act of 1930, as amended, having been extended (63 Stat. (pt., 1) 697), the President, on October 30, 1949, entered into a trade agreement with certain foreign countries providing for the accession to the General Agreement of these foreign countries, which trade agreement for accession consists of the Annecy Protocol of Terms of Accession to the General Agreement (hereinafter referred to as "Annecy-1949"), including the annexes thereto (64 Stat. (pt. 3) B141);

4. Whereas, by Proclamation No. 2867 of December 22, 1949 (64 Stat. (pt. 2) A380), the President proclaimed such modifications of existing duties and the 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 were, then found to be required or appropriate to carry out the trade agreement for accession on and after January 1, 1950, which proclamation has been supplemented and amended by subsequent proclamations, including Proclamation No. 2884 of April 27, 1950 (64 Stat. (pt. 2) A399);

5. Whereas, acting under and by virtue of the authority vested in him by section 350 of the Tariff Act of 1930, as amended (48 Stat. (pt. 1) 943, 57 Stat. (pt. 1) 125; 59 Stat. (pt. 1) .410, 63 Stat. (pt. 1) 698, 69 Stat. 162), and by section 7(c) of the Trade Agreements Extension Act of 1951 (65 Stat. 74), and in accordance with Article XIX of the General Agreement, the President, by Proclamation No. 8211 of November 9, 1957, proclaimed the withdrawal, of the duty concession granted by the United States with respect to spring clothespins described in the first item 412 in Part I of Schedule XX (Annecy-1949), effective after the close of business December 9, 1957;

6. Whereas Article XIX of the General Agreement provides for consultation with those other contracting parties having a substantial interest as exporters of products with respect to which action has been taken under that Article with a view to agreement being reached among all interested contracting parties;

7. Whereas reasonable public notice of the intention to conduct trade-agreement negotiations with the Government of Sweden, which is a contracting party to the General Agreement having a substantial interest as an exporter, was given, the views presented by persons interested in such negotiations were received and considered, and information and advice with respect to such negotiations were sought and obtained from the Departments of State, Agriculture, Commerce, and Defense, and from other sources;

8. Whereas, pursuant to section 3 (a) of the Trade Agreements Extension Act of 1951, as amended (19 U.S.C. § 1360 (a)), the President transmitted to the United States Tariff Commission for investigation and report a list of all articles imported into the United States of America to be considered for possible modification of duties and other import restrictions, imposition of additional import restrictions, or continuance of existing customs or excise treatment in the trade-agreement negotiations with the Government of Sweden, and the Tariff Commission made an investigation in accordance with section 3 of the said Trade Agreements Extension Act of 1951 as amended, and thereafter reported to him its determinations made pursuant to such section within the period specified therein;

9. Whereas I have found as a fact that, in the circumstances recited above existing duties or other import restrictions of the United States of America are unduly burdening and restricting the foreign trade of the United States of America;

10. Whereas, the period for the exercise of the authority of the President to enter into foreign-trade agreements under section 350 of the Tariff Act of 1930, as amended, having been extended by section 2 of the Trade Agreements Extension Act of 1958 (72 Stat. 673) until the close of June 30, 1962, as a result of the findings set forth in the ninth recital of this proclamation and for the purpose of restoring the general level of reciprocal and mutually advantageous concessions in the General Agreement by the replacement therein of other concessions, I, through my duly authorized representative, on September 15, 1961, entered into a foreign trade agreement consisting of an agreement, including a schedule, between the Kingdom of Sweden and the United States of America supplementary to the General Agreement, a copy of which supplementary agreement is annexed to this proclamation;

11. Whereas the agreement specified in the tenth recital of this proclamation provides that the treatment provided for in the schedule annexed thereto shall be applied by the United States of America on and after October 18, 1961;

12. Whereas I find that the compensatory modifications provided for in the trade agreement specified in the tenth recital of this proclamation constitute an appropriate action toward maintaining the general level of reciprocal and mutually advantageous concessions in the General Agreement, that the purpose set forth in the said section 350, as amended, will be promoted by such compensatory modifications of existing duties and other import restrictions and continuance of existing customs or excise treatment as are set forth and provided for in the trade agreement specified in the tenth recital of this proclamation and that such modifications of existing duties and other import restrictions and such continuance of existing customs or excise treatment of articles as are hereinafter proclaimed in this proclamation will be required or appropriate, on and after the date hereinafter specified, to carry out that trade agreement:

Now, Therefore, I, John F. Kennedy, President of the United States of America, acting under and by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the statutes, including section 350 of the Tariff Act of 1930, as amended, to the end that the foreign-trade agreement supplementary to the General Agreement, specified in the tenth recital of this proclamation, may be carried out, do hereby proclaim that 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 as are specified and provided for in that trade agreement, including the schedule annexed thereto, shall, subject to the provisions of that trade agreement, be applied as though such modifications and continuance were specified and provided for in Part I of Schedule XX (Annecy-1949), as follows:

(1)   The rates of duty specified in column A at the right of the description of products in the said schedule annexed to the said trade agreement supplementary to the General Agreement, on and after October 18, 1961.

(2)   The rates of duty specified in column B at the right of the description of products, on and after the date determined in accordance with the provisions of the Note at the end of the schedule annexed to the said trade agreement.

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 18th day of September in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and sixty-one and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred and eighty-sixth.

JOHN F. KENNEDY

By the President:

CHESTER BOWLES,

Acting Secretary of State.