Proclamation 7016—To Implement an Accelerated Schedule of Duty Elimination Under the North American Free Trade Agreement

1. On December 17, 1992, the Governments of Canada, Mexico, and the United States of America entered into the North American Free Trade Agreement ("the NAFTA"). The NAFTA was approved by the Congress in section 101(a) of the North American Free Trade Agreement Implementation Act ("the NAFTA Implementation Act") (19 U.S.C. 3311(a)) and was implemented with respect to the United States by Proclamation 6641 of December 15, 1993.

2. Section 201(b) of the NAFTA Implementation Act (19 U.S.C. 3331(b)) authorizes the President, subject to the consultation and layover requirements of section 103(a) of the NAFTA Implementation Act (19 U.S.C. 3313(a)), to proclaim accelerated schedules for duty elimination that the United States may agree to with Mexico or Canada. Consistent with Article 302(3) of the NAFTA, I, through my duly empowered representative, on March 20, 1997, entered into an agreement with the Government of Canada and the Government of Mexico providing for an accelerated schedule of duty elimination for specific goods. Consultation and layover requirements of section 103(a) of the NAFTA Implementation Act with respect to such schedule of duty elimination have been satisfied.

3. Pursuant to section 201(b) of the NAFTA Implementation Act, I have determined that the modifications hereinafter proclaimed of duties on goods originating in the territory of a NAFTA party are necessary or appropriate to (i) maintain the general level of reciprocal and mutually advantageous concessions with respect to Canada and Mexico provided for by the NAFTA and (ii) to carry out the agreement with Canada and Mexico providing an accelerated schedule of duty elimination for specific goods.

4. Section 604 of the Trade Act of 1974, as amended (19 U.S.C. 2483) ("the Trade Act"), authorizes the President to embody in the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States ("the HTS") the substance of the relevant provisions of acts affecting import treatment, and actions thereunder, including the removal, modification, continuance, or imposition of any rate of duty or other import restriction.

Now, Therefore, I, William J. Clinton, President of the United States of America, acting under the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, including but not limited to section 201(b) of the NAFTA Implementation Act and section 604 of the Trade Act, do proclaim that:

(1) In order to provide for an accelerated schedule of duty elimination for specific goods, the tariff treatment set forth in the HTS for certain NAFTA originating goods is modified as provided in the Annex to this proclamation.

(2) Any provisions of previous proclamations and Executive orders that are inconsistent with the actions taken in this proclamation are superseded to the extent of such inconsistency.

(3) The amendments made to the HTS by the Annex to this proclamation shall be effective with respect to goods entered, or withdrawn from warehouse for consumption, on or after July 1, 1997.

In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this thirty-first day of July, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and ninety-seven, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and twenty-second.

WILLIAM J. CLINTON