Proclamation 4630—Reduction of Rates of Duty on Certain Papermaking Machinery

Under the Geneva (1967) Protocol to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), the United States agreed to staged reductions in duty rates on machines for making cellulosic pulp, paper, or paperboard, and parts thereof provided for in items 668.00 and 668.06 of the Tariff Schedules of the United States (TSUS) (19 U.S.C. 1202).

On December 16, 1967, the President modified (in Proclamation No. 3822) the TSUS in order to carry out the Geneva Protocol including staged reductions of column 1 duty rates to 3.5 percent ad valorem on machines for making cellulosic pulp, paper, or paperboard, and parts thereof.

The Republic of Finland has benefitted from those tariff reductions. As a result of a March 13, 1978 ruling by the United States Customs Service the benefits contemplated to accrue to the Republic of Finland from these tariff reductions were substantially reduced.

The restoration of the contemplated benefits of these tariff reductions to the Republic of Finland would promote the foreign trade of the United States and the Republic of Finland. Pursuant to Section 101(a) of the Trade Act of 1974 (the Trade Act) (19 U.S.C. 2111(a)), I have determined that certain existing duties of the United States are unduly burdening and restricting the foreign trade of the United States and that one or more purposes of the Trade Act would be promoted by entering into a trade agreement with the Republic of Finland and restoring those contemplated benefits.

Having complied with the provisions of the Trade Act, including Sections 131

(a), 132, and 133, I have, through my duly empowered representative, on July 21, 1978, entered into a trade agreement with the Republic of Finland entitled "Agreement Supplementary to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade" which restores the tariff concessions on certain papermaking machinery and parts thereof affected by the March 13, 1978 United States Customs Service ruling, and which provides that such new concessions shall be applied as if they were included in part I of Schedule XX to the GATT, with the understanding that as soon as practicable these new concessions will be specifically included in Schedule XX.

Now, Therefore, I, Jimmy Carter, President of the United States of America, by the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the statutes of the United States of America, including Sections 101 and 604 of the Trade Act of 1974 (19 U.S.C. 2111 and 2483), and Article II, paragraph 5, of the GATT (61 Stat. (pt. 5) A16) do hereby proclaim:

(1) The TSUS are modified as provided in the Annex to this Proclamation.

(2) Part 1 of Schedule XX to the GATT is modified to conform with the modifications of the TSUS set forth in the Annex to this Proclamation.

(3) The modifications made by this Proclamation shall be effective as to articles entered, or withdrawn, from warehouse, for consumption on or after March 13, 1978, and as to which the liquidations of the entries or withdrawals have not become final and conclusive under Section 514 of the Tariff Act of 1930 (19 U.S.C. 1514).

In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this fifteenth day of December, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred seventy-eight, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and third.

JIMMY CARTER