Proclamation 4334—Sugar Imports

ESTABLISHMENT OF TARIFFS AND QUOTA ON CERTAIN SUGARS, SIRUPS AND MOLASSES

1.    Whereas, pursuant to section 201(a) of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962 (19 U.S.C. 1821(a)), on June 30, 1967, the President entered into a trade agreement consisting of the Geneva (1967) Protocol to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, including a schedule of United States concessions annexed thereto (hereinafter referred to as "Schedule XX (Geneva-1967)", together with the Final Act Authenticating the Results of the 1964-67 Trade Conference Held under the Auspices of the Contracting Parties to the General Agreement, and, by Proclamation No. 3822 of December 16, 1967 (82 Stat. 1455) 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 that agreement on and after January 1, 1968;

2.    Whereas, among such modifications and continuances, was Note 1 of Unit A, Chapter 10, Part I of Schedule XX (Geneva-1967);

3.    Whereas, Headnote 2, Subpart A, Part 10 of Schedule 1 of the Tariff Schedules of the United States (19 U.S.C. 1202, hereinafter referred to as (TSUS)), which was added to the TSUS by Proclamation No. 3822 on the basis of said note 1 referred to in recital 2, provides in relevant part as follows:

2. The rates in column numbered 1 in items 155.20 and 155.30 on January 1, 1968, shall be effective only during such time as Title II of the Sugar Act of 1948 or substantially equivalent legislation is in effect in the United States . . . Provided,

(i) That, 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, to be effective not later than the 90th day following the termination of the effectiveness of such legislation;

4.   Whereas, Section 201(a) (2) of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962 authorizes the President to proclaim the modification or continuance of any existing duty or other import restriction 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;

5.   And Whereas, It is determined that the rates and quota limitation hereinafter established are appropriate to carry out the portion of a trade agreement referred to in recitals 2 and 3, and 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, Gerald R. Ford, President of the United States of America, acting under the authority vested in me by the Constitution and statutes, including Section 201(a) (2) of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962 and in conformity with Headnote 2 of Subpart A of Part 10 of Schedule 1 of the TSUS do hereby proclaim until otherwise superseded by law:

(1) Subpart A, Part 10, Schedule 1 of the TSUS is modified by adding thereto a new headnote 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 in any calendar year shall not exceed, in the aggregate, 7,000,000 short tons, raw value. 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 sugar 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 sugar 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.

(2)    The rate of duty in rate column numbered 1 for items 155.20 and 155.30 is established as follows:

155.20 ------------ 0.6625¢ per lb. less 0.009375¢ per lb. for each degree under 100 degrees (and fractions of a degree in proportion) but not less than 0.428125¢ per lb.

155.30 ------------ Dutiable on total sugars at the rate per lb. applicable under Item 155.20 to sugar testing 100 degrees

(3)    The provisions of this proclamation shall become effective with respect to articles entered, or withdrawn from warehouse, for consumption on and after January 1, 1975, and shall remain in effect until the President otherwise proclaims or until otherwise superseded by law.

In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this sixteenth day of November, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred seventy-four, and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred ninety-ninth.

GERALD R. FORD