Implementation of the Second Round of Accelerated Tariff Eliminations Under Provisions of the North American Free Trade Agreement

OFFICE OF THE UNITED STATES TRADE REPRESENTATIVE

Implementation of the Second Round of Accelerated Tariff

Eliminations Under Provisions of the North American Free Trade

Agreement

AGENCY: Office of the United States Trade Representative.

ACTION: Notification of articles proposed for accelerated tariff

elimination under the North American Free Trade Agreement.

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SUMMARY: Section 201(b) of the North American Free Trade Agreement

Implementation Act of 1993 (``the Act'') grants the President, subject

to the consultation and lay-over requirements of section 103(a) of the

Act, the authority to proclaim any accelerated schedule for duty

elimination that may be agreed to by the United States, Mexico and

Canada under Article 302(3) of the North American Free Trade Agreement

(``the NAFTA''). This notice is intended to inform the public of those

articles on which the United States has provisionally agreed to

accelerate the elimination of duties as a result of the second round of

talks.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Office of Western Hemisphere Affairs,

Office of the United States Trade Representative, Room 522, 600 17th

Street, NW., Washington, DC 20508; telephone: (202) 395-3412; fax:

(202) 395-9517. The list of products for which the United States will

accelerate tariff elimination, as well as the lists for Mexico and

Canada and can be obtained from the USTR Internet Web Page, at

www.ustr.gov under ``Reports.''.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Two Federal Register notices provide

information on the second round. A notice soliciting petitions appeared

May 12, 1997 (62 FR 25992) and a request for comments on the list of

products to be considered appeared October 21, 1997, (62 FR 54671).

Article 302 of the NAFTA provides that the Parties may consider and

agree to accelerate the elimination of customs duties on goods of a

Party. Pursuant to this provision, the United States, Canada and Mexico

solicited requests from interested parties in May 1997. As a result,

approximately 1,500 8-digit tariff subheadings were considered by the

three Parties. For trade between the United States and Canada, all

duties subject to tariff reductions were eliminated on January 1, 1998.

Therefore, this acceleration round resulted in two parallel agreements,

one between the United States and Mexico and another between Mexico and

Canada.

Section 201 of the Act authorizes the President to proclaim such

modifications in NAFTA duty treatment as the President determines to be

necessary or appropriate to maintain the general level of reciprocal

and mutually advantageous concessions provided in the NAFTA, subject to

the consultation and layover requirements of section 103 of the Act.

Pursuant to section 103, on May 29, 1998, a report was submitted to the

House Ways and Means and Senate Finance Committees that sets forth the

proposed action to be proclaimed, the reasons therefore, and the advice

obtained from the International Trade Commission and appropriate

advisory committees. After expiration of the 60-day consultation and

layover period, the President may proclaim the proposed changes in

NAFTA duty treatment.

As a part of the process, USTR requested the advice of the United

States International Trade Commission (USITC) and consulted with

private sector trade advisory groups. As was the practice under the

first NAFTA tariff acceleration and the three rounds conducted under

the provisions of the United States-Canada Free Trade Agreement, the

United States did not agree to provide accelerated tariff elimination

for those products subject to negative advice. In a similar manner, the

governments of Canada and Mexico declined to agree to acceleration for

products subject to negative comments by their interested parties.

The Parties agreed to accelerated tariff elimination on the

remaining products, involving all or parts of approximately 600 8-digit

tariff lines for which one or more of the Parties have provisionally

agreed to eliminate duties at the conclusion of the necessary domestic

procedures.

As noted above, the relevant private sector advisory committees

were consulted throughout this process, and have expressed no objection

to eliminating tariffs for the products appearing in the Annex. In

addition, the USITC provided a report to USTR indicating that the

proposed eliminations would have no harmful impact on the United

States.

The attached list shows the tariff subheadings for which the United

States proposes to eliminate the remaining tariffs on imports of NAFTA-

qualifying goods from Mexico, effective August 1, 1998.

Regarding future tariff acceleration activity, trilateral work to

date has brought about a positive process of consultations and

communication among the private sectors of the NAFTA

[[Page 32037]]

countries. To encourage this process of industry cooperation, the

Governments of the three NAFTA countries have agreed to keep this

consultation process open, so that if consensus is reached among the

industries for particular items which were included in the Federal

Register notice of October 21, 1997, and equivalent notices published

by Mexico and Canada, the Governments will proceed with the appropriate

internal procedures to implement acceleration for such items. A further

Federal Register notice will be published in the near future providing

information on procedures regarding such industry consensus, as well as

those for new NAFTA accelerated tariff reduction requests.

Jon Huenemann,

Assistant U.S. Trade Representative for North America.

NAFTA Tariff Acceleration--Second Round Annex: List of Subheadings

for Which the United States Has Provisionally Agreed To Accelerate

Elimination of Duties for NAFTA Qualifying Goods of Mexico

2909.49.10, 2909.49.15, 2915.90.14, 2915.90.18, 2916.39.03,

2916.39.06, 2916.39.45, 2916.39.75, 2917.39.70, 2921.22.10,

2922.49.27, 2924.29.75, 2933.40.08, 2933.40.15, 2933.40.20,

2933.40.26, 2933.40.60, 2933.40.70, 2933.90.13, 2934.90.05,

2934.90.06, 2934.90.08, 2934.90.39, 2934.90.44, 3808.30.50,

3811.90.00, 3822.00.50, 3824.90.28, 3824.90.45, 3824.90.90,

5112.11.10, 5112.19.20, 5208.11.20, 5208.11.40, 5208.11.60,

5208.11.80, 5208.12.40, 5208.12.60, 5208.12.80, 5208.19.40,

5208.19.60, 5208.19.80, 5208.21.20, 5208.21.40, 5208.21.60,

5208.22.40, 5208.22.60, 5208.22.80, 5208.29.40, 5208.29.60,

5208.29.80, 5208.31.40, 5208.31.60, 5208.31.80, 5208.32.30,

5208.32.40, 5208.32.50, 5208.39.40, 5208.39.60, 5208.39.80,

5208.41.40, 5208.41.60, 5208.41.80, 5208.42.30, 5208.42.40,

5208.42.50, 5208.43.00, 5208.49.20, 5208.49.40, 5208.49.60,

5208.49.80, 5208.51.40, 5208.51.60, 5208.51.80, 5208.52.30,

5208.52.40, 5208.52.50, 5208.59.40, 5208.59.60, 5208.59.80,

5209.11.00, 5209.21.00, 5209.29.00, 5209.31.60, 5209.39.00,

5209.41.60, 5209.43.00, 5209.49.00, 5209.51.60, 5209.59.00,

5210.11.40, 5210.11.60, 5210.11.80, 5210.19.40, 5210.19.60,

5210.19.80, 5210.21.40, 5210.21.60, 5210.21.80, 5210.29.40,

5210.29.60, 5210.29.80, 5210.31.40, 5210.31.60, 5210.31.80,

5210.39.40, 5210.39.60, 5210.39.80, 5210.41.40, 5210.41.60,

5210.41.80, 5210.42.00, 5210.49.20, 5210.49.40, 5210.49.60,

5210.49.80, 5210.51.40, 5210.51.60, 5210.51.80, 5210.59.40,

5210.59.60, 5210.59.80, 5211.11.00, 5211.19.00, 5211.21.00,

5211.29.00, 5211.31.00, 5211.39.00, 5211.41.00, 5211.43.00,

5211.49.00, 5211.51.00, 5211.59.00, 5212.11.10, 5212.11.60,

5212.12.10, 5212.12.60, 5212.13.10, 5212.13.60, 5212.14.10,

5212.14.60, 5212.15.10, 5212.15.60, 5212.21.10, 5212.21.60,

5212.22.10, 5212.22.60, 5212.23.10, 5212.23.60, 5212.24.10,

5212.24.60, 5212.25.10, 5212.25.60, 5402.10.30, 5402.10.60,

5402.31.30, 5402.31.60, 5402.32.30, 5402.32.60, 5402.33.30,

5402.33.60, 5402.39.30, 5402.39.60, 5402.41.90, 5402.43.10,

5402.43.90, 5402.59.00, 5402.61.00, 5402.62.00, 5402.69.00,

5403.10.30*, 5403.20.60, 5403.31.00*, 5403.39.00, 5403.49.00,

5404.10.80, 5405.00.30, 5406.10.00, 5406.20.00, 5407.10.00,

5407.20.00, 5407.30.10, 5407.30.90, 5407.42.00, 5407.43.10,

5407.43.20, 5407.44.00, 5407.53.10, 5407.53.20, 5407.61.11,

5407.61.19, 5407.61.21, 5407.61.29, 5407.61.91, 5407.61.99,

5407.69.10, 5407.69.20, 5407.69.30, 5407.69.40, 5407.69.90,

5407.71.00, 5407.72.00, 5407.73.10, 5407.73.20, 5407.74.00,

5407.81.00, 5407.82.00, 5407.83.00, 5407.84.00, 5407.91.05,

5407.91.10, 5407.91.20, 5407.92.05, 5407.92.10, 5407.92.20,

5407.93.05, 5407.93.10, 5407.93.15, 5407.93.20, 5407.94.05,

5407.94.10, 5407.94.20, 5408.10.00, 5408.21.00, 5408.22.10,

5408.22.90, 5408.23.11, 5408.23.19, 5408.23.21, 5408.23.29,

5408.24.10, 5408.24.90, 5408.31.05, 5408.31.10, 5408.31.20,

5408.32.05, 5408.32.10, 5408.32.30, 5408.32.90, 5408.33.05,

5408.33.10, 5408.33.15, 5408.33.30, 5408.33.90, 5408.34.05,

5408.34.10, 5408.34.30, 5408.34.90, 5501.10.00, 5502.00.00,

5503.40.00, 5503.90.90, 5506.90.00, 5512.11.00, 5512.19.00,

5512.91.00, 5512.99.00, 5513.11.00, 5513.12.00, 5513.13.00,

5513.19.00, 5513.21.00, 5513.22.00, 5513.23.00, 5513.29.00,

5513.31.00, 5513.32.00, 5513.33.00, 5513.39.00, 5513.41.00,

5513.42.00, 5513.43.00, 5513.49.00, 5514.11.00, 5514.12.00,

5514.13.00, 5514.19.00, 5514.21.00, 5514.22.00, 5514.23.00,

5514.29.00, 5514.31.00, 5514.32.00, 5514.33.00, 5514.39.00,

5514.41.00, 5514.42.00, 5514.43.00, 5514.49.00, 5515.11.00,

5515.12.00, 5515.13.05, 5515.19.00, 5515.21.00, 5515.22.05,

5515.29.00, 5515.91.00, 5515.92.05, 5515.92.10, 5515.99.00,

5516.21.00, 5516.22.00, 5516.23.00, 5516.24.00, 5516.31.05,

5516.32.05, 5516.33.05, 5516.34.05, 5516.34.10, 5516.41.00,

5516.42.00, 5516.43.00, 5516.44.00, 5516.91.00, 5516.92.00,

5516.93.00, 5516.94.00, 5602.21.00, 5603.11.00, 5603.12.00,

5603.13.00, 5603.14.30, 5603.14.90, 5603.91.00, 5603.92.00,

5603.93.00, 5603.94.10, 5603.94.30, 5603.94.90, 5604.20.00,

5604.90.00, 5607.50.25, 5608.11.00, 5608.19.10, 5608.19.20,

5608.90.10, 5609.00.10, 5801.10.00, 5801.21.00, 5801.23.00,

5801.24.00, 5801.26.00, 5801.31.00, 5801.33.00, 5801.34.00,

5801.36.00, 5802.11.00, 5802.19.00, 5802.20.00, 5802.30.00,

5803.10.00, 5803.90.11, 5803.90.12, 5803.90.20, 5803.90.30,

5803.90.40, 5811.00.10, 5811.00.20, 5811.00.30, 5811.00.40,

5901.10.10, 5901.10.20, 5901.90.20, 5901.90.40, 5903.20.10,

5903.20.18, 5903.20.25, 5903.20.30, 5903.90.25, 5903.90.30,

5905.00.90, 5906.91.10, 5906.91.25, 5906.91.30, 5906.99.10,

5906.99.25, 5906.99.30, 5907.00.15, 5907.00.35, 5907.00.60,

5907.00.80, 5908.00.00, 5909.00.20, 5910.00.90, 5911.31.00,

5911.32.00, 6210.10.50, 6302.21.30, 6302.21.50, 6302.21.70,

6302.21.90, 6302.22.10, 6302.22.20, 6302.29.00, 6302.31.30,

6302.31.50, 6302.31.70, 6302.31.90, 6302.32.10, 6302.32.20,

6302.39.00, 6302.91.00, 6304.19.05, 6304.19.10, 6304.19.15,

6304.19.20, 6304.19.30, 6307.90.30, 6307.90.40, 6307.90.50,

6307.90.60, 6307.90.68, 6307.90.72, 6307.90.75, 6307.90.89,

6505.90.15, 6505.90.20, 6505.90.25, 6505.90.30, 6505.90.40,

6505.90.50, 6505.90.60, 6505.90.70, 6505.90.80, 6505.90.90,

7216.22.00, 7219.21.00, 7219.22.00, 7220.11.00, 7223.00.10,

7223.00.50, 7223.00.90, 7229.10.00, 8544.51.90, 9101.11.40,

9101.11.80, 9102.11.10, 9102.11.25, 9102.11.30, 9102.11.45,

9102.11.50, 9102.11.65, 9102.11.70, 9102.11.95, 9102.91.40,

9102.91.80, 9108.11.40, 9108.11.80

* = Only portions of the subheading as described below will have

duty elimination accelerated:

for 5403.10.00: Solution dyed viscose rayon yarn certified by the

importer to be solution dyed (provided for in subheading 5403.10.00)

for 5403.31.00: Solution dyed viscose rayon yarn certified by the

importer to be solution dyed (provided for in subheading 5403.31.00)

[FR Doc. 98-15291 Filed 6-10-98; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 3190-01-P