Proclamation 5021

Temporary Duty Reductions on Certain Articles Pursuant to Legislation Implementing the Nairobi Protocol to the Florence Agreement on the Importation of Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Materials

By the President of the United States of America A Proclamation

1. On March 1, 1977, the Nairobi Protocol (the Protocol) (97th Congress, 1st session, Senate Treaty Document 97-2, p. 9) to the Florence Agreement on the Importation of Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Materials of November 22, 1950 (the Florence Agreement) (17 U.S.T. 1837) was opened for signature. The Protocol supplements and expands upon the Florence Agreement, which provided for duty-free entry under specified conditions of various educational, scientific, and cultural materials and which entered into force with respect to the United States on November 2, 1966. On January 16, 1981, the President submitted the Protocol to the Senate for advice and consent to its ratification, together with an explanatory letter from the Secretary of State containing a statement that the Administration did not intend to adhere to the optional Annexes F, G, and H of the Protocol.

2. On January 12, 1983, the Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Materials Importation Act of 1982 (the Act) (Pub. L. 97-446; 96 Stat. 2346) was enacted. Section 167(b)(1) of the Act directs the President to proclaim temporary duty-free treatment for certain imported articles for the blind or for other handicapped persons.

3. Section 167(b)(2) of the Act also authorizes the President to proclaim temporary duty-free treatment for imports of specified printed, visual, and auditory material and certain tools for scientific apparatus, if he determines such action is in the interest of the United States. I have determined that it is in the interest of the United States to implement, on a temporary basis, duty-free treatment for such articles as provided in section 167(b)(2) of the Act.

Now, Therefore, I, Ronald Reagan, President of the United States of America, acting under the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the statutes of the United States, including, but not limited to, section 167(b) of the Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Materials Importation Act of 1982 (96 Stat. 2349) and section 604 of the Trade Act of 1974 (19 U.S.C. 2483), do proclaim that-

(l) The Appendix to the Tariff Schedules of the United States (TSUS) (19 U.S.C. 1202) is modified as set forth in the Annex to this proclamation.

(2) The modifications of the Appendix to the TSUS made by the Annex hereto shall be effective as to articles entered, or withdrawn from warehouse for consumption, on and after February 11, 1983, and before the close of August 11, 1985, unless the period of their effectiveness is earlier expressly suspended, terminated, or modified.

In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this 14th day of February, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and eighty-three, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and seventh.

RONALD REAGAN

[Filed with the Office of the Federal Register, 10:45 a.m., February 15, 1983]