Proclamation 4610—Modification of Quotas on Certain Sugars, Sirups, and Molasses

1. By Proclamation 4334 of November 16, 1974, the President modified Subpart A, Part 10, Schedule 1 of the Tariff Schedules of the United States ( 19 U.S.C. 1202, hereinafter referred to as the "TSUS") to establish, effective January 1, 1975, following expiration of the Sugar Act of 1948, rates of duty and a quota applicable to sugars, sirups and molasses described in items 155.20 and 155.30 of the TSUS. The President subsequently modified the rates of duty by Proclamation 4463 of September 21, 1976, Proclamation 44-66 of October 4, 1976, and Proclamation 4539 of November 11, 1977.

2. the President took these actions pursuant to authority vested in him by the Constitution and statutes of the United States, including section 201 (a) (2) of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962 (19 U.S.C. 1821(a) (2)), and in conformity with Headnote 2 of Subpart A of Part 10 of Schedule 1 of the TSUS, hereinafter referred to as the "Headnote." The Headnote was part of a trade agreement which embodied the results of the "Kennedy Round" of international trade negotiations. That agreement is known formally as the 1967 Geneva Protocol to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, and the agreement includes, as an Annex, "Schedule XX," a schedule of United States trade concessions made during those negotiations. This agreement was concluded pursuant to section 201 (a) of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962 (19 U.S.C. 1821(a)), and was implemented by Proclamation No. 3822, of December 16, 1967 (82 Stat. 1455) which, inter alia, added the Headnote to the TSUS.

3. The Headnote provides, in relevant part, as follows:

"(i) . . . if the President finds that a particular rate not lower than such January 1, 1968, rate, limited by a particular quota, may be established for any articles provided for in item 155.20 or 155.30, which will give due consideration to the interests in the United States sugar market of domestic producers and materially affected contracting parties to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, he shall proclaim such particular rate and such quota limitation, . . .

"(ii) . . . any rate and quota limitation so established shall be modified if the President finds and proclaims that such modification is required or appropriate to give effect to the above considerations; . . ."

4. Section 201 (a) (2) of the Trade Expansion Act authorizes the President to proclaim the modification or continuance of any existing duty or other import restrictions, or such additional import restrictions as he determines to be required or appropriate to carry out any trade agreement entered into under the authority of that Act, except that pursuant to section 201 (b) (2) of the Act, the President may not by proclamation increase a rate of duty to a rate more than 50 percent above the rate existing on July 1, 1934.

5. I find that the modifications hereinafter proclaimed of the quota applicable to items 155.20 and 155.30 of the TSUS are appropriate to carry out the International Sugar Agreement, 1977, and that portion of the Kennedy Round Trade agreement set forth in the Headnote, and as provided for in the Headnote, give due consideration to the interests in the United States sugar market of domestic producers and materially affected contracting parties to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade.

Now, Therefore, I, Jimmy Carter, President of the United States of America. acting under the authority vested in me by the Constitution and statutes, including section 201 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962, and in conformity with Headnote 2, Subpart A of Part 10 of Schedule 1, of the TSUS, do hereby proclaim until otherwise superseded by law:

A. Headnote 3 of Subpart A, Part 10, Schedule 1 of the TSUS is modified to provide as follows:

(3) The total amount of sugars, sirups, and molasses described in items 155.20 and 155.30, the products of all foreign countries, entered, or withdrawn from warehouse, for consumption in any calendar year shall not exceed, in the aggregate, 6,900,000 short tons, raw value. Of this quantity, not more than 210,987 short tons, raw value, the product of the Republic of China, and not more than 150,544 short tons, raw value, in the aggregate, the products of all foreign countries other than Argentina, Australia, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belize, Bolivia, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Costa Rica, Cuba, Republic of China, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Fiji, Finland, German Democratic Republic, Guatemala, Guyana, Honduras, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Iraq, Jamaica, Japan, Kenya, Republic of Korea, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mexico, Mozambique, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Norway, Pakistan, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Portugal, Singapore, South Africa, St. Christopher-Nevis-Anguilla, Swaziland, Sweden, Thailand, Trinidad and Tobago, Uganda, Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, Venezuela, and Yugoslavia, may be entered, or withdrawn from warehouse for consumption in the period between January 1, 1978 and December 31, 1979, inclusive. For the purposes of this headnote, the term "raw value" means the equivalent of such articles in terms of ordinary commercial raw sugar testing 96 degrees by the polariscope as determined in accordance with regulations issued by the Secretary of the Treasury. The principal grades and types of sugar shall be translated into terms of raw value in the following manner:

(i) For articles described in item 155.20, by multiplying the number of pounds thereof by the greater of 0.93, or 1.07 less 0.0175 for each degree of polarization under 100 degrees (and fractions of a degree in proportion).

(ii) For articles described in item 155.30, by multiplying the number of pounds of the total sugars thereof (the sum of the sucrose and reducing or invert sugars) by 1.07.

(iii) The Secretary of the Treasury shall establish methods for translating sugar into terms of raw value for any special grade or type of sugar for which he determines that the raw value cannot be measured adequately under the above provisions.

B. The provisions of this proclamation shall become effective with respect to articles entered, or withdrawn from warehouse, for consumption on and after the date of publication of this Proclamation in the FEDERAL REGISTER, except that articles which were released under the provisions of section 448(b) of Tariff Act of 1930 (19 U.S.C. 1448(b) ) prior to such date shall not be denied entry.

In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this thirtieth day of November, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred seventy-eight, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and third.

JIMMY CARTER