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Proclamation 2865—Supplementing the Proclamations of December 16, 1947, and January 1, 1948, Carrying Out the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade and the Exclusive Trade Agreement with Cuba, Respectively, and Terminating in Part the Proclamation of January 30, 1948

November 30, 1949


By the President of the United States of America

A Proclamation

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 by section 1 of the act of June 12, 1934, by the joint resolution approved June 7, 1943, and by sections 2 and 3 of the act of July 5, 1945 (ch. 474, 48 Stat. 943, ch. 118, 57 Stat. 125, ch. 269, 59 Stat. 410 and 411; 19 U.S.C. 1351), the period for the exercise of the said authority under section 350 having been extended by section 1 of the said act of July 5, 1945 (ch. 269, 59 Stat. 410), until the expiration of three years from June 12, 1945, on October 30, 1947, the President entered into a trade agreement with the Governments of the Commonwealth of Australia, the Kingdom of Belgium, the United States of Brazil, Burma, Canada, Ceylon, the Republic of Chile, the Republic of China, the Republic of Cuba, the Czechoslovak Republic, the French Republic, India, Lebanon, the Grand Duchy of Luxemburg, the Kingdom of the Netherlands, New Zealand, the Kingdom of Norway, Pakistan, Southern Rhodesia, Syria, the Union of South Africa, and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, which trade agreement consists of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade and the related Protocol of Provisional Application thereof, together with the Final Act Adopted at the Conclusion of the Second Session of the Preparatory Committee of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Employment, which authenticated the texts of the said general agreement and the said protocol (Treaties and Other International Acts Series 1700);

2. Whereas by Proclamation No. 2761A of December 16, 1947 (3 CFR., 1947 Supp., p. 71), the President proclaimed such modifications of existing duties and the 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 January 1, 1948, which proclamation has been supplemented by Proclamation No. 2769 of January 30, 1948 (3 CFR, 1948 Supp., p. 21), Proclamation No. 2782 of April 22, 1948 (3 CFR,., 1948 Supp., p. 34), Proclamation No. 2784 of May 4, 1948 (3 CFR., 1948 Supp., p. 38), Proclamation No. 2790 of June 11, 1948 (3 CFR., 1948 Supp., p. 46), (supplemented by Proclamation No. 2809 of September 7, 1948 (3 CFR., 1948 Supp., p. 75)), Proclamation No. 2791 of June 12, 1948 (3 CFR., 1948 Supp., p. 49), Proclamation No. 2792 of June 25, 1948 (3 CFR., 1948 Supp., p. 50), Proclamation No. 2798 of July 15, 1948 (3 CFR., 1948 Supp., p. 55), and Proclamation No. 2829 of March 8, 1949, Supra;

3. Whereas pursuant to the authority vested in the President by the Constitution and the statutes, including the said section 350, the period for the exercise of the said authority under such section having been so extended, on October 30, 1947, the President entered into an exclusive trade agreement with the Government of the Republic of Cuba (Treaties and International Acts Series 1703), which exclusive trade agreement includes certain portions of other documents made a part thereof and provides for the customs treatment in respect of ordinary customs duties of products of the Republic of Cuba imported into the United States of America;

4. Whereas by Proclamation No. 2764 of January 1, 1948 (3 CFR., 1948 Supp., p. 11), the President proclaimed such modifications of existing duties and other import restrictions of the United States of America in respect of products of the Republic of Cuba and such continuance of existing customs and excise treatment of products of the Republic of Cuba imported into the United States of America as were then found to be required or appropriate to carry out the said exclusive trade agreement on and after January 1, 1948, which proclamation has been supplemented by the said Proclamations of January 30, 1948, April 22, 1948, May 4, 1948, June 11, 1948, June 25, 1948, July 15, 1948, and March 8, 1949;

5. Whereas section 6 of the Trade Agreements Extension Act of 1949 (Public Law 307, 81st Congress) provides as follows:

SEC. 6. Section 350(b) of the Tariff Act of 1930, as amended (U.S. Code, 1946, title 19, sec. 1351(b)), is amended by changing the colon to a period, by deleting the proviso, and by adding the following: "Nothing in this Act shall be construed to preclude the application to any product of Cuba (including products preferentially free of duty) of a rate of duty not higher than the rate applicable to the like products of other foreign countries (except the Philippines), whether or not the application of such rate involves any preferential customs treatment. No rate of duty on products of Cuba shall in any case be decreased by more than 50 per centum of the rate of duty, however established, existing on January 1, 1945 (even though temporarily suspended by Act of Congress).";

6. Whereas I determine that, in view of the legislative provision set forth in the fifth recital of this proclamation, the deletion of the remaining items from the list set forth in the eighth recital of the said proclamation of January 1, 1948, as amended and rectified (including those items added thereto by subdivision (a) of Part II of the said proclamation of January 30, 1948, and by subdivision (a) of Part II of the said proclamation of June 25, 1948, and including item 1529(a) as modified by subdivision (a) of Part II of the said proclamation of May 4, 1948), is required or appropriate to carry out the trade agreement specified in the first recital of this proclamation and the exclusive trade agreement specified in the third recital of this proclamation on and after the thirtieth day following the date of this proclamation;

7. Whereas I determine that, in view of the determination set forth in the sixth recital of this proclamation, the deletion from the list set forth in the seventh recital of the said proclamation of January 30, 1948, of the item 718(a) which was added thereto by subdivision (b) of Part I of the said proclamation of June 25 1948, is required or appropriate to carry out the said trade agreement specified in the first recital of this proclamation on and after the thirtieth day following the date of this proclamation;

8. Whereas in view of the determination set forth in the sixth recital of this proclamation, the continuance of item 211, item 226, item 368(c)(6) item 806(a), the remaining item 1527(c)(2), and item 1544 in the seventh recital of the said proclamation of January 30, 1948, will, on and after the thirtieth day following the date of this proclamation, no longer be required or appropriate to carry out the trade agreement specified in the first recital of this proclamation;

9. Whereas I determine that in view of the determinations set forth in the sixth and eighth recitals of this proclamation the addition of the following item to the list set forth in the ninth recital of the said proclamation of January 1, 1948, as amended and rectified, is required or appropriate to carry out, on and after the thirtieth day following the date of this proclamation, the said exclusive trade agreement specified in the third recital of this proclamation:

1544 Rosaries, chaplets, and similar articles of religious 44% ad val.

Devotion, if made in whole or in part of gold, Silver, platinum, gold plate, silver plate, or Precious or imitation precious stones.

10. Whereas item 708(a) in Part I of Schedule XX in the Second Protocol of Rectifications to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, of September 14, 1948, a copy of which is annexed to the said proclamation on March 8, 1949, was inadvertently misstated in some respects, and I determine that it is required or appropriate to carry out the said trade agreement specified in the first recital of this proclamation that said item 708(a) be changed to:

Item 708(a)

In the English text of item 708(a) the principal description shall be:

Milk, condensed or evaporated:;

11. AND Whereas the final sentence of subsection (a) of the said section 350, as amended, authorizes the President to terminate in whole or in part any proclamation carrying out a trade agreement entered into under such section;

Now, Therefore, I, Harry S. Truman, President of the United States of America, acting under and by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the statutes, including the said section 350 of the Tariff Act of 1930, as amended, do proclaim as follows:

PART I

To the end that the said trade agreement specified in the first recital of this proclamation may be carried out:

(a) Effective on the thirtieth day following the date of this proclamation, item 718(a) which was added to the list set forth in the seventh recital of the said proclamation of January 30, 1948, by subdivision (b) of Part I of the said proclamation of June 25, 1948, shall be deleted from such list, and on and after the thirtieth day following the date of this proclamation the rate of duty representing each concession provided for in the second item 718(a) in Part I of Schedule XX of the said general agreement shall be applied subject to the applicable terms, conditions, and qualifications set forth in Schedule XX and Parts I, II, and III of the said general agreement, and in subdivision (a), other than exception (I) thereof, of the said proclamation of December 16, 1947, including any amendments and rectifications of the said general agreement and the said proclamation which have been proclaimed by the President, to articles of a kind provided for in the description of products in the column at the left of the said rate.

(b) Item 708(a) in Part I of Schedule XX in the copy of the said protocol specified in the tenth recital of this proclamation shall be rectified in the manner set forth in such recital.

PART II

To the end that the said trade agreement specified in the first recital of this proclamation and the said exclusive trade agreement specified in the third recital of this proclamation may be carried out, the list set forth in the eighth recital of the same proclamation of January 1, 1948, as amended, shall on and after the thirtieth day following the date of this proclamation be further amended in the manner indicated in the sixth recital of this proclamation.

PART III

To the end that the said trade agreement specified in the third recital of this proclamation may be carried out, the list set forth in the ninth recital of the said proclamation of January 1, 1948, as amended, shall on and after the thirtieth day following the date of this proclamation be further amended in the manner indicated in the ninth recital of this proclamation.

PART IV

The said proclamation of January 30, 1948, so far as it relates to the items in the list set forth in the seventh recital thereof which are specified in the eighth recital of this proclamation, shall not be in effect after the twenty-ninth day following the date of this proclamation.

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 30th day of November in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and forty-nine, and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred and seventy-fourth.

Signature of Harry S. Truman

HARRY S. TRUMAN

By the President:

DEAN ACHESON,

Secretary of State.

Harry S Truman, Proclamation 2865—Supplementing the Proclamations of December 16, 1947, and January 1, 1948, Carrying Out the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade and the Exclusive Trade Agreement with Cuba, Respectively, and Terminating in Part the Proclamation of January 30, 1948 Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/287332

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