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Skriven 2006-12-29 23:31:00 av Whitehouse Press (1:3634/12.0)
Ärende: Press Release (0612294) for Fri, 2006 Dec 29
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Proclamation To Eliminate Tariffs on Certain Pharmaceuticals and Chemical
Intermediates
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For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
December 29, 2006

Proclamation To Eliminate Tariffs on Certain Pharmaceuticals and Chemical
Intermediates
A Proclamation by the President of the United States of America



1. During the Uruguay Round of Multilateral Trade Negotiations (the
"Uruguay Round"), a group of major trading countries agreed to reciprocal
elimination of tariffs on certain pharmaceuticals and chemical
intermediates, and that participants in this agreement would revise
periodically the list of products subject to duty-free treatment. On
December 13, 1996, at the Ministerial Conference of the World Trade
Organization (WTO), the United States and 16 other major trading countries
agreed to eliminate tariffs on additional pharmaceuticals and chemical
intermediates. On April 1, 1997, the United States implemented this
agreement in Proclamation 6982. The second revision to the list of products
was negotiated under the auspices of the WTO in 1998. The United States
implemented this revision on July 1, 1999, in Proclamation 7207. In 2006,
the United States and 30 other WTO members concluded negotiations, under
the auspices of the WTO, on a further revision to the list of
pharmaceuticals and chemical intermediates to receive duty-free treatment.

2. Section 111(b) of the Uruguay Round Agreements Act (URAA)(19 U.S.C.
3521(b)) authorizes the President under specified circumstances to proclaim
the modification of any duty or staged rate reduction of any duty set forth
in Schedule XX United States of America, annexed to the Marrakesh Protocol
to the GATT 1994 (Schedule XX) for products that were the subject of
reciprocal duty elimination negotiations during the Uruguay Round, if the
United States agrees to such action in a multilateral negotiation under the
auspices of the WTO. Section 111(b) also authorizes the President to
proclaim such modifications as are necessary to correct technical errors
in, or make other rectifications to, Schedule XX.

3. On October 3, 2006, consistent with section 115 of the URAA, the United
States Trade Representative (USTR) submitted a report to the Committee on
Ways and Means of the House of Representatives and the Committee on Finance
of the Senate (the "Committees") that set forth the proposed further
revision to the list of products subject to tariff eliminations.

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

import treatment, and actions thereunder, including the removal,
modification, continuance, or imposition of any rate of duty or other
import restriction.

5. Pursuant to section 111(b) of the URAA, I have determined that Schedule
XX should be modified to reflect the implementation by the United States of
the multilateral agreement on certain pharmaceuticals and chemical
intermediates negotiated under the auspices of the WTO. In addition, I have
determined that the pharmaceuticals appendix to the HTS should be modified
to reflect the duty eliminations provided for in that agreement and to make
certain technical corrections in the manner in which Schedule XX identifies
particular products in order to ensure that they are accorded the intended
duty treatment.

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 111(b) of the URAA and section 604 of the 1974 Act, do proclaim
that:

(1) In order to implement the multilateral agreement negotiated under the
auspices of the WTO to eliminate tariffs on certain pharmaceutical products
and chemical intermediates, and to make technical corrections in the tariff
treatment accorded to such products, the HTS is modified as set forth in
the Annex to this proclamation.

(2) Such modifications to the HTS shall be effective with respect to
articles entered, or withdrawn from warehouse for consumption, on or after
the date set forth in the Annex for the respective actions taken.

(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-ninth day of December, in the year of our Lord two thousand six, and
of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and
thirty-first.

GEORGE W. BUSH

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