Proclamation 2960—Modification of Trade-Agreement Concession and Adjustment in the Rate of Duty with Respect to Hatters' Fur

1. Whereas, pursuant to the authority vested in the President by the Constitution and the statutes, including section 350(a) of the Tariff Act of 1930, as amended, on October 30, 1947 I entered into a trade agreement with certain foreign countries, which trade agreement consists of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade and the related Protocol of provisional Application thereof, together with the Final Act Adopted at the Conclusion of the Second Session of the Preparatory Committee of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Employment (61 Stat. (Parts 5 and 6) A7, A11, and A2050), and, by Proclamation No. 2761A of December 16, 1947 (61 Stat. 1103), I 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 the said trade agreement on and after January 1, 1948;

2. Whereas item 1520 in Part I of Schedule XX annexed to the said General Agreement reads as follows:

3. Whereas, pursuant to the said Proclamation No. 2761A, duty at the rate of 15 percent ad valorem has been applied to products described in the said item 1520 entered, or withdrawn from warehouse, for consumption since January 1, 1948, which duty reflects the concession granted in the said General Agreement with respect to such products:

4. Whereas the United States Tariff Commission has submitted to me its report of an investigation and hearing under section 7 of the Trade Agreements Extension Act of 1951 (Public Law 50, 82d Congress, approved June 16, 1951), on the basis of which it has found that the products described in the said item 1520 are, as a result in part of the duty reflecting the concession granted thereon in the said General Agreement, being imported into the United States in such increased quantities as to cause serious injury to the domestic industry producing like or directly competitive products, and as to threaten continuance of such serious injury;

5. Whereas the Tariff Commission has recommended that the concession granted in the said General Agreement with respect to the products described in the said item 1520 be modified to permit the application to such products of a rate of duty of 47 ½ cents per pound, but not less than 15 percent nor more than 35 percent ad valorem, which rate the Commission found and reported to be necessary to prevent the continuance of serious injury to the domestic industry producing like or directly competitive products;

6. Whereas section 350(a)(2) of the Tariff Act of 1930, as amended (48 Stat. 943), authorizes the President to proclaim such modifications of existing duties as are required or appropriate to carry out any foreign trade agreement that the President has entered into under the said section 350(a); and

7. Whereas, upon the modification of the concession granted in the said General Agreement with respect to the products described in the said item 1520, in accordance with the recommendation of the Tariff Commission indicated in the 5th recital of this proclamation, it will be appropriate to carry out the said General Agreement, including Article XIX thereof, to apply to the said products the rate of duty specified in the said 5th recital;

Now, Therefore, I, Harry S. Truman, President of the United States of America, acting under the authority vested in me by section 350 of the Tariff Act of 1930, as amended, and by section 7(c) of the Trade Agreements Extension Act of 1951, and in accordance with the provisions of Article XIX of the said General Agreement, do proclaim -

(a) That the concession granted in the said General Agreement with respect to the products described in the said item 1520, shall be modified, effective after the close of business February 8, 1952, by changing the rate of duty specified in such item 1520 from "15% ad val." to "47 ½ per lb., but not less than 15% nor more than 35% ad val."; and

(b) That the rate of duty which shall be applied to the products described in the said item 1520 entered, or withdrawn from warehouse, for consumption after the close of business February 8, 1952, and until the President otherwise proclaims, shall be 47 ½ cents per pound, but not less than 15 percent nor more than 35 percent ad valorem.

Proclamation No. 2761A of December 16, 1947, as amended, is modified accordingly.

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 fifth day of January in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and fifty-two, and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred and seventy-sixth.

HARRY S. TRUMAN

By the President:

DEAN ACHESON,

Secretary of State.