Proclamation to Provide Duty-Free Treatment to Products
of the West Bank and Gaza
(November 13, 1996)
By the President of the United States of America
A Proclamation
1. Section 9(a) of the United States-Israel Free Trade
Area Implementation Act of 1985, as amended (the "Act") (19
U.S.C. 2112 note), authorizes the President to proclaim elimination
or modification of any existing duty under certain conditions as the
President determines is necessary to exempt any article of the West
Bank or Gaza Strip or a qualifying industrial zone from duty.
2. Section 9(c) of the Act authorizes the President
to proclaim that articles of Israel may be treated as though they were
articles directly shipped from Israel for the purposes of the U.S.-Israel
Free Trade Agreement (the "Agreement") even if shipped to
the United States from the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, or a qualifying
industrial zone, if the articles otherwise meet the requirements of
the Agreement.
3. Section 9(d) of the Act authorizes the President
to proclaim that the cost or value of materials produced in the West
Bank, the Gaza Strip, or a qualifying industrial zone may be included
in the cost or value of materials produced in Israel under section 1(c)(i)
of Annex 3 of the Agreement, and the direct costs of processing operations
performed in the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, or a qualifying industrial
zone may be included in the direct costs of processing operations performed
in Israel under section 1(c)(ii) of Annex 3 of the Agreement.
4. Section 9(e) of the Act authorizes the President
to specify areas that constitute qualifying industrial zones for purposes
of the Act.
5. Pursuant to section 9(a) of the Act, I have determined
that the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States (HTS) should
be modified to provide duty-free entry to qualifying articles that are
the product of the West Bank or Gaza Strip or a qualifying industrial
zone and are entered in accordance with the provisions of section 9
of the Act.
6. I have decided that articles of Israel may be treated
as though they were articles directly shipped from Israel for the purposes
of the Agreement even if shipped to the United States from the West
Bank, the Gaza Strip, or a qualifying industrial zone, if the articles
otherwise meet the requirements of the Agreement.
7. I have decided that the cost or value of materials
produced in the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, or a qualifying industrial
zone may be included in the cost or value of materials produced in Israel
under section 1(c)(i) of Annex 3 of the Agreement, and the direct costs
of processing operations performed in the West Bank, the Gaza Strip,
or a qualifying industrial zone may be included in the direct costs
of processing operations performed in Israel under section 1(c)(ii)
of Annex 3 of the Agreement.
8. Section 604 of the Trade Act of 1974 (19 U.S.C.
2483) authorizes the President to embody in the HTS the substance of
the provisions of that Act, and of other acts affecting import treatment,
and actions thereunder.
Now, Therefore, I, William J. Clinton, President of
the United States of America, acting under the authority vested in me
by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, including but
not limited to section 301 of title 3, United States Code, section 9
of the Act (19 U.S.C. 2112 note), and section 604 of the Trade Act of
1974 (19 U.S.C. 2483), do proclaim that:
(1) In order to provide the tariff treatment being
accorded under the Act, the HTS is modified as set forth in the Annex
to this proclamation.
(2) I delegate to the United States Trade Representative
the powers granted to me in section 9(e) of the Act to specify through
notice in the Federal Register areas constituting qualifying industrial
zones.
(3) The modifications to the HTS made by the Annex
shall be effective with respect to goods entered, or withdrawn from
warehouse for consumption, on and after the third day after the date
of publication of this proclamation in the Federal Register.
(4) All 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
thirteenth day of November, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred
and ninety-six, and of the Independence of the United States of America
the two hundred and twenty-first.
William J. Clinton
Sources: Public Papers of the President |