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Home > News & Policies > Proclamation Archives

For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
September 28, 2007

Duty Elimination for Certain Goods of Mexico Under the North American Free Trade Agreement

A Proclamation by the President of the United States of America

     1.  On December 17, 1992, the Governments of Canada, Mexico, and the United States of America entered into the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).  The NAFTA was approved by the Congress in section 101(a) of the North American Free Trade Agreement Implementation Act (Public Law 103-182) (the "NAFTA Implementation Act") (19 U.S.C. 3311(a)) and was implemented with respect to the United States by Presidential 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 of 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, have entered into an agreement with the Government of Mexico providing for an accelerated schedule of duty elimination for specific goods of Mexico.  The 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 herein proclaimed of duties on goods originating in the territory of Mexico are necessary or appropriate to maintain the general level of reciprocal and mutually advantageous concessions with respect to Mexico provided for by the NAFTA, and to carry out the agreement with Mexico providing an accelerated schedule of duty elimination for specific goods.

     4.  Section 604 of the Trade Act of 1974, as amended (the "1974 Act") (19 U.S.C. 2483), authorizes the President to embody in the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States (HTS) the substance of relevant provisions of that Act, or other acts affecting import treatment, and actions taken thereunder.

     NOW, THEREFORE, I, GEORGE W. BUSH, President of the United States of America, acting under the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including but not limited to section 201(b) of the NAFTA Implementation Act and section 604 of the 1974 Act, do proclaim that:

     (1)  In order to provide an accelerated schedule of duty elimination for specific goods of Mexico under the terms of general note 12 to the HTS, the tariff treatment set forth in the HTS is modified as provided in the Annex to this proclamation.

     (2)  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 October 1, 2007.

     (3)  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.

     IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this twenty‑eighth day of September, in the year of our Lord two thousand seven, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and thirty-second.

                             GEORGE W. BUSH

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