|
OTHER LAWS REGULATING IMPORTS
Authorities to Restrict Imports of Agricultural and Textile Products
The Uruguay Round agreements and the legislation implementing them commit the
United States to phasing out restrictions on agricultural products and textiles.
Previously, Section 204 of the U.S. Agricultural Act of 1956 authorized the
president to negotiate agreements with foreign governments to limit their
agricultural or textile exports to the United States. This authority was used
extensively prior to the conclusion of the Uruguay Round in 1994.
Multifiber Arrangement/Agreement on Textiles and Clothing: The
Multifiber Arrangement (MFA), an international agreement that came into force in
January 1974, allowed contracting members of the GATT to negotiate bilateral
agreements imposing quantitative restrictions on textile and apparel imports.
The MFA, negotiated under the authority of Section 204 of the 1956 act, was
intended to help textile importing countries deal with market disruptions such
as import surges while giving developing country exporters a greater share of
the growing world textile market. Extended six times, the MFA expired on
December 31, 1994, and was immediately replaced by the Uruguay Round Agreement
on Textiles and Clothing (ATC).
Under the ATC, quotas and restrictions on textiles and apparel trade are set
to be phased out in three stages ending on January 1, 2005. All WTO members are
subject to the ATC, whether or not they were signatories to the MFA, and only
WTO countries are eligible for the agreement's liberalizing benefits.
The bilateral textile agreements negotiated between individual importing and
supplier countries under the MFA remain in force during the transition to 2005.
The United States currently has textile and apparel quotas with 47 countries. Of
these, 38 countries are subject to the ATC. Eight others are not WTO members and
therefore will not benefit from the phase-out of quotas and restrictions
specified under the ATC. Non-members such as China, Russia, and others will
continue to be subject to bilateral textile agreements. Textile imports from
Mexico and Canada are governed NAFTA.
Agriculture and the Uruguay Round Agreements Act: Section 401 of the
Uruguay Round Agreements Act changed U.S. law to prohibit quantitative
limitations or fees on agricultural product imports that are produced within a
WTO member-state. When the agreement establishing the WTO entered into force on
January 1, 1995, only wheat was excepted from this prohibition.
The Uruguay Round agreements on agriculture require WTO members to commit to
reducing export subsidies and domestic subsidies and to improve market access.
The agreement establishes rules and reduction commitments to be implemented over
six years for developed countries and over 10 years for developing countries.
The United States has agreed under the WTO to convert quotas and fees on
agricultural products to tariff-rate quotas, and to reduce the tariffs over
time.
Sugar Tariff-Rates Quotas: While the United States has always been a
net importer of sugar, since 1934 there have been restrictions on sugar imports
to foster the domestic sugar cane and sugar beet industries. This system of
import protection has maintained a U.S. price for sugar well above the world
price.
To bring the U.S. sugar program into conformity with the GATT, and later with
the Uruguay Round accord, the absolute quotas imposed on imported sugar were
converted into a tariff-rate quota arrangement in 1990. As a result of the
Uruguay Round of multilateral trade negotiations, two tariff-rate quotas were
adopted, one for raw cane sugar and one for imports of other sugars and syrups.
Under the tariff-rate quota system, the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture
determines the amount of sugar that can be imported at the lower import duty
rates, and the USTR allocates this quantity among the 40 eligible sugar
exporting countries. The quantities allocated to the beneficiary countries under
GSP, CBI and the ATPA receive duty-free treatment. Certificates of Quota
Eligibility (CQE) are issued to the exporting countries and must be executed and
returned with each shipment of sugar in order to receive quota treatment.
Imports of sugar that exceed the quota amount are subjected to much higher
duties. The United States agreed in the Uruguay Round not to reduce the amount
of sugar it would import and to lower its higher sugar tariffs by 15 percent
over six years. Sugar imports from Mexico are governed by NAFTA provisions.
Tariff rate quotas are also applied to meat imports, which were previously
subject to restrictions by the Meat Import Act. The tariff rate quotas replace
import quotas that were required by the act once meat shipments surpassed a
certain level. The Meat Import Act was repealed so U.S. law would conform to the
Uruguay Round Agreement on Agriculture.
Authorities to Restrict Imports Under Certain Environmental Laws
Following is the status of the most prominent U.S. laws that use import
restrictions to encourage foreign governments to adopt practices that protect
dolphins, fisheries, wild birds, and other endangered species:
Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972 (MMPA): Since 1990 the United
States has banned imports of yellowfin tuna products derived from yellowfin tuna
harvested in the eastern tropical Pacific Ocean, except from countries that
prohibit their fishing boats from using purse seine nets in the harvest, a
practice once responsible for the slaughter of hundreds of thousands of dolphins
a year. U.S. boats have been subject to the same prohibition since 1972. Twice
GATT panels ruled that the law violated GATT obligations, but neither ruling was
ever formally adopted.
The Clinton administration supports implementation of the 1995 Panama
Declaration, which would make binding on the 12 signatory countries voluntary
conservation measures now practiced in the eastern tropical Pacific, where
dolphin kills fell below 3,000 in 1996. But it would require changes in the
MMPA, including lifting the embargoes and, most controversially, redefining the
"dolphin-safe" label on tuna cans. Legislation implementing the Panama
Declaration has passed in the House of Representatives, but faces obstacles in
the Senate.
Section 609 of U.S. Public Law 101-162: As the State Department
currently interprets this law, the United States prohibits imports of wild
shrimp from areas of the world where the harvest might harm endangered or
threatened sea turtles, except from countries certified by the department as
requiring their shrimp boats to employ turtle excluder devices. U.S. shrimp
boats have the same requirement. The State Department announces its list of
certified countries on May 1 each year. A number of countries have challenged
the embargo in the WTO, where a dispute-settlement panel is scheduled to rule on
the case by December 1997.
Endangered Species Act of 1973: This law authorizes the secretary of
the interior to prohibit imports of species or subspecies that are considered
endangered or threatened.
Section 8 of the Fishermen's Protection Act of 1967, as amended, the
"Pelly Amendment": The president has authority under this provision to ban
imports of any products from any country that conducts fishery practices or
engages in trade that diminishes the effectiveness of international programs for
fishery conservation or international programs for endangered or threatened
species. Under the Pelly Amendment, President Clinton briefly banned certain
imports from Taiwan after his administration determined that the island economy
was trading in rhinoceros horn and tiger bones in violation of the Convention on
International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES). Pelly Amendment sanctions
have also been threatened against countries that engage in whaling.
High Seas Driftnet Fisheries Enforcement Act: The president has
authority under this provision to ban shellfish, fish and fish products, and
sport fishing equipment from any country that his administration determines has
violated the United Nations ban on driftnet fishing.
Wild Bird Conservation Act of 1992: The secretary of the interior is
authorized to ban imports of exotic birds listed in any of the appendices to
CITES.
National Security Import Restrictions
Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962 allows the president to impose
restrictions on imports that threaten national security. This has been used from
time to time, most notably to impose quotas and fees on petroleum imports and to
embargo import of refined petroleum products from Libya.
Balance of Payments Authority
Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974 gives the president the power to
increase or reduce imports to deal with balance of payments problems. The
president can tighten import restrictions through quotas or import surcharges of
up to 15 percent ad valorem, or a combination of the two. This law has never
been invoked.
Product Standards
Differences in product standards, listing and approval procedures, and
product certification systems often can impede trade and can be manipulated to
discriminate against imports. The Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade,
known as the Standards Code, which was negotiated in the Tokyo Round of GATT
negotiations that concluded in 1979, established for the first time
international rules for how governments prepare, adopt, and apply standards and
certification systems.
The Uruguay Round negotiations built on the Standards Code, establishing the
Uruguay Round Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade. This new agreement seeks
to eliminate barriers in the form of national product standardization and
testing practices and conformity assessment procedures.
U.S. law on the application of product standards in trade is based on these
GATT and WTO agreements. NAFTA has its own provisions that deal with product
standards.
Government Procurement
Governments are among the world's largest purchasers of goods -- even when
military purchases are excluded. Most of this vast market has traditionally been
closed to foreign suppliers by various measures that discriminate in favor of
domestic producers.
The 1979 GATT Agreement on Government Procurement was a major effort to open
up government procurement. It sought to discourage discrimination against
foreign suppliers at all stages of the procurement process. The Government
Procurement Code established by the agreement bound the signatories to take
numerous steps to open up their government procurement processes.
The 1994 WTO Agreement on Government Procurement (GPA), which built on the
1979 code, entered into force on January 1, 1996. It requires central government
agencies in member countries to observe non-discriminatory, fair, and
transparent procedures in the procurement of goods and services, including
construction services. The agreement also applies to subcentral governments and
to government-owned enterprises.
The GPA requires the establishment of a domestic bid challenge system and
introduces added flexibility to accommodate advances in procurement techniques.
It also allows each signatory to negotiate coverage on a reciprocal, bilateral
basis with other signatories. The United States has concluded comprehensive
coverage packages with several countries.
The GPA is a "plurilateral agreement," which means that its members are those
who specifically signed it. The GPA currently has 26 members, including the
United States and most other industrial countries.
NAFTA has its own provisions to eliminate discriminatory government
procurement practices.
The U.S. Congress passed a law in 1988 that required the president to submit
an annual report to Congress identifying signatories to the GATT/WTO government
procurement agreements that were in violation of their obligations, and
non-signatories that are discriminating against U.S. products and services. The
president was authorized to seek WTO dispute settlement procedures with WTO
signatories and to impose sanctions against offending non-signatory countries.
This law expired in 1996. The Clinton administration is reviewing whether to
continued its authority through executive order.
|
