Proclamation 2986—Modification of Trade Agreement Concession and Adjustment in the Rate of Duty with Respect to Dried Figs

1. Whereas, pursuant to the authority vested in the President by the Constitution and the Statutes, including section 350 of the Tariff Act of 1930, as amended, on April 21, 1951, I entered into a trade agreement providing for the accession to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade of certain foreign countries, including the Republic of Turkey, which trade agreement consists of the Torquay Protocol to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, dated April 21, 1951, including the Annexes thereto, and by Proclamation No. 2929 of June 2, 1951 (3 CFR, 1951 Supp., 27; TD 52739), I proclaimed such modifications of existing duties and other import restrictions of the United States of America and such continuance of existing customs or excise treatment of articles imported into the United States of America as were then found to be required or appropriate to carry out the said trade agreement on and after June 6, 1951, which proclamation has been supplemented by several notifications of the President to the Secretary of the Treasury, including a notification dated October 2, 1951, (3 CFR, 1951 Supp., 540; TD 52836);

2. Whereas, as set forth in the 7th recital of the said Proclamation No. 2929, and in accordance with paragraph 3 of the said Torquay Protocol, Schedule XX contained in Annex A of the said Protocol (hereinafter referred to as the "Torquay schedule") became a schedule to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade relating to the United States of America on June 6, 1951;

3. Whereas item 740 in Part I of the Torquay schedule reads as follows:

4. Whereas, pursuant to the said Proclamation No. 2929 and the said notification of the President to the Secretary of the Treasury of October 2, 1951, duty at the rate of 2 ½ cents per pound has been applied to the products described in the said item 740, entered, or withdrawn from warehouse, for consumption since October 17, 1951, which duty reflects the prevailing United States concession with respect to such products under the said General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade as supplemented by the said Torquay schedule;

5. Whereas the United States Tariff Commission has submitted to me its report of 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 investigation and hearing it has found that dried figs described in the said item 740 are, as a result in part of the duty reflecting the concession granted thereon in the said General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade as supplemented by the Torquay schedule, being imported into the United States in such increased quantities, both actual and relative, as to cause serious injury to the domestic industry producing like or directly competitive products, and as to threaten continuance of such injury;

6. Whereas the said Tariff Commission has recommended that the concession granted in the said General Agreement a supplemented by the Torquay schedule with respect to dried figs described in the said item 740 be modified to permit the application to such products of a rate of duty of 4 ½ cents per pound, 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;

7. Whereas section 350(a)(2) of the Tariff Act of 1930, as amended, 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

8. Whereas, upon the modification of the concession granted in the said General Agreement as supplemented by the Torquay schedule with respect to dried figs described in the said item 740 in accordance with the recommendation of the Tariff Commission mentioned in the 6th recital of this proclamation, it will be appropriate to carry out the said General Agreement as supplemented by the Torquay schedule to apply to the said dried figs the rate of duty specified in the said 6th 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 provisions of item 740 of Part I of the Torquay schedule shall be modified, effective at the close of business August 29, 1952, so as to read as follows:

(b) That, until the President otherwise proclaims, the rates of duty specified in such modified item 740, as set forth in paragraph (a) above, shall be applied to articles entered, or withdrawn from warehouse, for consumption after the close of business August 29, 1952. The said Proclamation No. 2929 is modified accordingly. So long as this proclamation remains in force, the provisions of Proclamation No. 2867 of December 22, 1949 (3 CFR, 1949 Supp., 55; TD 52373) and Proclamation No. 2874 of March 1, 1950 (3 CFR, 1950 Supp., 21; TD 52423), insofar as they provide for carrying out United States obligations with respect to the rate of duty on dried figs described in item 740 of Part I of Schedule XX in Annex A of the Annecy Protocol of Terms of Accession to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, shall be suspended.

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 16th day of August 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-seventh.

HARRY S. TRUMAN

By the President:

DAVID BRUCE,

Acting Secretary of State.