§4031 Tariff Modifications

Summary

The President can change or keep U.S. import duties. The President can also keep or end duty-free or excise treatment, or add extra duties for goods under the CAFTA‑DR Agreement. When the Agreement enters into force with respect to a CAFTA‑DR country, the United States must end that country’s designation as a "beneficiary developing country" for title V of the Trade Act of 1974 and must end its "beneficiary country" status under the Caribbean Basin Economic Recovery Act on that same date. Even after that, each such country will still be treated as a beneficiary country under section 212(a) of the Caribbean Basin Economic Recovery Act for three specific items: 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 proclaim changes like those above, may agree with a CAFTA‑DR country on the timing (staging) of tariff treatment in Annex 3.3, and may continue or add duties or duty-free/excise treatment. For any good whose base U.S. rate in Annex 3.3 is a specific or compound rate, the President may replace that rate with an ad valorem rate he or she finds to be equivalent.