96-006 73 pt. 7 23

MR STEWART

"(d) (1) Such foreign trade agreement shall enter
into effect only if a proclamation valid pursuant to this
subsection is published by the President under the terms
and conditions specified herein.

"(2) Such proclamation shall be valid

(i) only if the President has given notice to
the Senate and to the House of Representatives of
his intention to issue a proclamation making effective
such foreign trade agreement, such notice to be given
at least 120 days in advance of his publishing such
proclamation;

(ii) only after the expiration of 120 days from
the date on which the President delivers a copy of
such agreement to the Senate and to the House of
Representatives, as well as a copy of his proposed
proclamation in relation to such foreign trade agreement
and a statement of his reasons for entering into an
agreement providing for modification of duties or
other import restrictions, the imposition of additional
import restrictions, the modification of methods of

17(K)

MR. STEWART

customs valuation, the modification of methods of
establishing the quantities on which assessments are
made, or the modification of requirements for marking
of imported products to disclose to the ultimate
purchaser the country of origin, together with a
statement of his reasons as to how such foreign trade
agreement in view of such modification, imposition,

or continuance in excess of the limits reported by the
Tariff Commission will, in the judgment of the President,
serve the interests of United States producers and
workers and as to why the proposed proclamation or
proclamations are necessary to carry out such foreign
trade agreement; and

(iii) only if between the date of delivery of
the agreement to the Senate and to the House of Repre-
sentatives and the expiration of the 120-day period
referred to in subsection (d), neither the Senate nor
the House of Representatives has adopted a resolution,
by an affirmative vote of the yeas and nays of a majority
of a quorum of that house, stating that it disapproves
of the foreign trade agreement, or that it disapproves
of that portion of the foreign trade agreement in which

17(L)

MR. STEWART

the President proposes to make modification, or to impose,
or to continue, import restrictions, methods of customs
valuation, methods of establishing the quantities on
which assessments are made, or in the requirements for
marking the country of origin in excess of the limits
specified by the Tariff Commission in its report to the
President. For purposes of this section, in the computa-
tion of the 120-day period, there shall be excluded the
days on which either house is not in session because of
adjournment of more than three days to a day certain, or
an adjournment of the Congress sine die. The notices
referred to in this section and the documents referred
to in this section shall be delivered to both houses
of the Congress on the same day and shall be delivered
to the Clerk of the House of Representatives if the
House of Representatives is not in session and to the
Secretary of the Senate if the Senate is not in session."

17(M)

The Administration bill at Section 111 omits to provide that
the Tariff Commission will investigate and supply to the President its
advice with respect to articles which would be affected by provisions
of a trade agreement entered into by the President which propose the
reduction, harmonization, or elimination of nontariff barriers to trade.
Under Section 103(d) of the bill, the President would be authorized to
enter into trade agreements providing for such changes, and would be
required to notify the Congress of his intention to implement such trade
agreements. The Congress thereupon, according to the Administration bill,
would have a 90-day period within which either house could by affirmative
vote of the majority of its members disapprove such agreement.

The Tariff Commission's advice is no less important with
respect to such changes than it is in regard to proposed modifications

in import duties, the continuance or modification of other import restric

The Stewart paper's proposed section 112 is apparently
an effort to extend section 111 to all agreements on non-
tariff barriers. It is unclear why the non-tariff barriers
to which section 103 (c) refers are treated in proposed
section 111 rather than in proposed section 112. The
relationship of this section to section 103 of the bill is.
totally unclear. As presently drafted, where the President
concluded an agreement modifying a non-tariff barrier
which in any way differs from the recommendation of the
Tariff Commission, it must be submitted to Congress under

a special veto procedure. All agreements, however, concluded
· under section 103 (d) of the bill must in any event be sub-
mitted to Congress under the veto procedure contained in
section 103 (e) of the Administration's bill. The paper is
therefore either suggesting that such agreements be submitted
twice, or that section 103 (c) be dropped, with the result
that agreements which do accord precisely with the advice

MR. STEWART

GOVERNMENT

18(B)

tions, customs or excise treatment, or change in methods of customs valua-
tion, establishing the quantity of imported articles on which assessments
will be made, and requirements for the marking of imported articles so as
to disclose to the ultimate purchaser the country of origin. Accordingly,
it is proposed that the bill be further amended by adding a new section
to specify the obligations of the Tariff Commission with respect to such
proposed changes. The following language is recommended:

"SEC. 112. TARIFF COMMISSION ADVICE AS TO PROPOSED
MODIFICATION IN NONTARIFF BARRIERS TO TRADE.--(a) Before
entering into negotiations concerning any proposed foreign
trade agreement under section 103(d), the President shall
furnish the United States Tariff Commission with a list
of all articles imported into the United States to be
considered for possible modification of domestic law alleged
by countries which are the principal suppliers of such
articles imported into the United States to be nontariff
barriers which are to be considered for possible modifica-
tion pursuant to intended negotiations in any proposed
foreign trade agreement. The list shall identify the

of the Tariff Commission under proposed section 112 may be
implemented without further consideration by the Congress.

The

From a negotiating standpoint, the procedure envisaged
by proposed section 112 is totally unworkable.
Tariff Commission investigation apparently may only
commence after a "principal supplier" alleges that some-
thing is a non-tariff barrier. The Tariff Commission is
required to investigate and report, apparently on an
article-by-article basis, on the extent to which such
practice may be modified (presumably with respect to each
individual article), within a period of six months. In
practice, this would mean that negotiations would begin,
would be recessed for six months while the Tariff Commission
conducted its inquiry, and then resumed on the basis of
its findings. It is unlikely that any foreign country
would be willing to negotiate under such conditions.

It is unclear what would be required in the event