Proclamation 4742—Establishment of a Special Limited Global Import Quota for Upland Cotton

1. Section 103(f)(1) of the Agricultural Act of 1949, as added by section 602 of the Food and Agriculture Act of 1977 (91 Stat. 913, 934; 7 U.S.C. 1444(f) (1)), provides that whenever the Secretary of Agriculture determines that the average price of Strict Low Middling one and onesixteenth inch cotton (mircroaire 3.5 through 4.9), hereinafter referred to as "Strict Low Middling cotton," in the designated spot markets for a month exceeded 130 per centum of the average price of such quality of cotton in such markets for the preceding thirty-six months, notwithstanding any other provision of law, the President shall immediately establish and proclaim .a special limited global import quota for upland cotton. The amount of such quota is to be equal to twenty-one days of domestic mill consumption of upland cotton at the seasonally adjusted average rate of the most recent three months for which data are available and is to remain in effect for a ninety-day period.

2. The Secretary of Agriculture has informed me that he has determined that the average price of Strict Low Middling cotton in the designated spot markets for the month of February 1980 has exceeded 130 per centum of the average price of such cotton in such markets for the preceding 36 months. The Secretary's determination was based upon the following data:

(a) The average price of Strict Low Middling cotton in the designated spot markets for the month of February 1980 was 80.66 cents per pound.

(b) The average price of Strict Low Middling cotton in the designated spot markets for the 36 months preceding the month of February 1980 (February 1977 through January 1980) was 60.34 cents per pound.

3. Twenty-one days of domestic mill consumption of upland cotton, which is any variety of the Gossypium hirsutum species of cotton, at the seasonally adjusted rate of the most recent three months for which data are available (November 1979-January 1980) is 244,030,605 pounds.

Now, Therefore, I, Jimmy Carter, President of the United States of America, by the authority vested in me by the Constitution and Statutes of the United States of America, including section 103(f)(1) of the Agricultural Act of 1949, as added by section 602 of the Food and Agriculture Act of 1977, and in order to establish a special ninety-day limited global import quota for 244,030,605 pounds of upland cotton, do proclaim that Part 3 of the Appendix to the Tariff Schedules of the United States is hereby modified by inserting in numerical sequence the following temporary provision:

"Item Article Quota quantity

955.07 Notwithstanding any other quantitative limitations on the importation of cotton, upland cotton, if accompanied by an original certificate of an official of a government agency of the country in which the cotton was produced attesting to the fact that cotton is a variety of the Gossypium hirsutum species of cotton, may be entered during the 90-day period April 3, 1980 through July 2, 1980. 244,030,605 pounds".

In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this thirty-first day of March, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and eighty, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and fourth.

JIMMY CARTER