Department of State Publication 6986 Commercial Policy Series 173 For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office UNITED STATES PARTICIPATION IN TRADE-AGREEMENT NEGOTIATIONS ANNOUNCEMENT OF INTENTION TO NEGOTIATE, LIST OF FRODUCTS, The Interdepartmental Committee on Trade Agreements (TAC), with the approval of the President, today issued formal notice of the intention of the United States Government to participate, under the authority of the Trade Agreements Act of 1934 as amended and extended, in multilateral tariff negotiations within the framework of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). The notice issued today has attached to it a list of products on which the United States may consider offering tariff concessions for the purpose of obtaining from other countries concessions of benefit to United States export trade. A separate release concerning export products on which the United States may request tariff or other concessions from other countries has also been issued today, with the authorization of the Committee on Trade Agreements. The list of products attached to the notice is merely a preliminary one designed to provide an opportunity for all interested persons to submit any information they may wish on whether or not the United States Government should offer concessions on individual products. No decision has been reached regarding the possibility of offering a tariff concession on any article on the list. Such a decision will be made only after there has been an opportunity to appraise all information obtained from the public during the hearing process now being started, as well as that otherwise available to the agencies of the Government. A number of so-called basket categories of products have been included in the list. The extent to which offers of concessions on items included in these basket categories may be made will depend on the information that is developed with regard to the content of the categories. An opportunity will be provided for importers and other interested persons to submit detailed information on specific articles included in those categories. The negotiations, which are being sponsored by the GATT, are scheduled to begin in Geneva, Switzerland in September 1960. The conference is to be held in two phases, with the first being concerned principally with two types of renegotiations and the second with negotiations for an exchange of new concessions. During the first phase, the various contracting parties will have an opportunity to negotiate with the European Economic Community, pursuant to Article XXIV:6 of the General Agreement, concerning the establishment of a new schedule of tariff concessions for the Common Market as a whole to replace the present national tariff schedules of the individual Member States. During this phase of the negotiations contracting parties will also have an opportunity to negotiate, pursuant to Article XXVIII of the Agreement, the modification or withdrawal of individual concessions in their existing schedules before the current three year period of firm validity of schedules ends on December 31, 1960. During the second phase of the conference, scheduled to begin in January 1961, a number of the contracting parties, including the Member States for the EEC, expect to negotiate with each other for an exchange of new concessions. Several countries will also be negotiating for the purpose of acceding to the GATT. The negotiations in this phase will have as their aim the reduction of tariffs and other charges on imports through the exchange of reciprocal and mutually advantageous tariff concessions. On the basis of presently available information, the United States expects to negotiate with the Commission of the European Economic Community on behalf of the six Member States (Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg and the Netherlands); with 17 other GATT contracting parties (Australia, Austria, Canada, Chile, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Finland, Haiti, India, Japan, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Norway, Peru, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and Uruguay), and with Israel, Spain, Switzerland and Tunisia, which have acceded to the GATT provisionally or have been or are expected to be invited to negotiate for accession to the GATT. If there proves to be a basis for negotiation, the United States may also negotiate with some additional GATT countries. United States participation in the negotiations will be under the authority delegated to the President in the Trade Agreements Act, which was most recently extended and amended by Public Law 686, 85th Congress, in 1958. No concession can be made in excess of that authority. Under the Trade Agreements Extension Act of 1958, the President is authorized to enter into trade agreements within the four-year period ending June 30, 1962. In such trade agreements the Fresident is authorized to reduce United States duties in stages by any one of three alternative methods as follows: |