§4031 Tariff modifications

Summary

The President may change, keep, or add U.S. duties, and may keep or change duty-free or excise treatment for goods under the CAFTA–DR agreement. Even if other laws say otherwise, the President must end each CAFTA–DR country’s status as a beneficiary developing country under title V of the Trade Act of 1974 on the day the Agreement takes effect for that country. The President must also end each country’s beneficiary status under the Caribbean Basin Economic Recovery Act on that same day. Still, each country will be treated as a beneficiary country under section 212(a) of that Act for three specific rules: sections 1677(7)(G)(ii)(III) and 1677(7)(H) of this title; the duty-free treatment in paragraph 12 of Appendix I of the General Notes to the Schedule of the United States to Annex 3.3 of the Agreement; and section 274(h)(6)(B) of title 26. Under the consultation and layover rules in section 4014, the President may also proclaim changes, continuations, or additional duties, and may agree with a CAFTA–DR country on the timing (staging) of duty changes in Annex 3.3. For any good whose base U.S. rate in Annex 3.3 is a specific or compound duty, the President may replace that rate with an ad valorem rate the President finds to be equivalent.