Proclamation 5453—Amending the Generalized System of Preferences

By the President of the United States of America

A Proclamation

1. Pursuant to Title V of the Trade Act of 1974, as amended (the Trade Act) (19 U.S.C. 2461 et seq.), in Proclamation 5365 of August 30, 1985 (50 FR 36220), I designated specified articles provided for in the Tariff Schedules of the United States (TSUS) (19 U.S.C. 1202) as eligible for preferential tariff treatment under the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) when imported from designated beneficiary developing countries. I also designated certain such countries as least-developed beneficiary developing countries, pursuant to section 504(c)(6) of the Trade Act, as amended (19 U.S.C. 2464(c)(6)), in order to afford such preferential tariff treatment without regard to the limitations imposed in section 504(c), as amended.

2. Pursuant to section 504(c) of the Trade Act, as amended, those beneficiary countries not designated as least-developed beneficiary developing countries are subject to limitations on the preferential treatment afforded under the GSP. Pursuant to section 504(c)(5) of the Trade Act, as amended, a country which has not been treated as a beneficiary developing country with respect to an eligible article may be redesignated with respect to such article, if imports of such article from such country did not exceed the limitations in section 504(c)(1) during the preceding calendar year. Further, pursuant to section 504(d)(1) of the Trade Act, as amended (19 U.S.C. 2464(d)(1)), the limitation provided in section 504(c)(1)(B) shall not apply with respect to an eligible article if a like or directly competitive article was not produced in the United States on January 3, 1985.

3. I have determined, pursuant to section 504(a) and (c)(1) of the Trade Act, that certain beneficiary developing countries should no longer receive preferential tariff treatment under the GSP with respect to certain previously designated eligible articles. I have also determined, pursuant to section 504(c)(5) of the Trade Act, that certain countries should be redesignated as beneficiary developing countries with respect to specified previously designated eligible articles. These countries have been excluded from the benefits of the GSP with respect to such eligible articles pursuant to section 504(c)(1) of the Trade Act. Further, I have determined that section 504(c)(1)(B) of the Trade Act should not apply with respect to certain eligible articles because no like or directly competitive article was produced in the United States on January 3, 1985.

4. Section 604 of the Trade Act (19 U.S.C. 2483) confers authority upon the President to embody in the TSUS the substance of the relevant provisions of that Act, of other acts affecting import treatment, and of actions taken thereunder.

Now, Therefore, I, Ronald Reagan, President of the United States of America, acting under the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the statutes of the United States, including but not limited to Title V and section 604 of the Trade Act of 1974, do proclaim that:

(1) In order to provide preferential tariff treatment under the GSP to certain countries which have been excluded from the benefits of the GSP for certain eligible articles imported from such countries, following my determination that a country not previously receiving such benefits should again be treated as a beneficiary developing country with respect to such article, the Rates of Duty Special column for each of the TSUS items enumerated in Annex I to this proclamation is modified: (a) by deleting from such column for such TSUS items the symbol "A*" in parentheses, and (b) by inserting in such column the symbol "A" in lieu thereof.

(2) In order to provide that one or more countries should no longer be treated as beneficiary developing countries with respect to an eligible article for purposes of the GSP, the Rates of Duty Special column for the TSUS items enumerated in Annex II to this proclamation is modified: (a) by deleting from each such item the symbol "A" in parentheses, and (b) by inserting in such column the symbol "A*" in lieu thereof.

(3) General headnote 3(e)(v)(D) to the TSUS, listing those articles that are eligible for benefits of the GSP except when imported from the beneficiary countries listed opposite the enumerated TSUS items for those articles, is modified as provided in Annex III to this proclamation.

(4) The eligible articles imported from designated beneficiary developing countries and provided for in the TSUS items enumerated in Annex IV to this proclamation shall not be subject to the limitations of section 504(c)(1)(B) of the Trade Act, as amended. (5) Proclamation 5365 of August 30, 1985 (50 FR 36220) is superseded to the extent inconsistent with this proclamation.

(6) The modifications to the TSUS made by this proclamation shall be effective with respect to articles both: (a) imported on or after January 1, 1976, and (b) entered, or withdrawn from warehouse for consumption, on or after July 1, 1986.

In Witness Whereof I have hereunto set my hand this 31st day of March, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and eighty-six, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and tenth.

RONALD REAGAN

[Filed with the Office of the Federal Register, 11:02 a.m., April 2, 1986]