On December 20, 2012, President Obama issued a Presidential Proclamation to include the Republic of South Sudan as a beneficiary country under the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), and is terminating the designation of the Republic of Mali and the Republic of Guinea-Bissau as beneficiary sub-Saharan African countries effective January 1, 2013.
The Proclamation notes that the Harmonized Tariff Schedule (HTS) is being amended in General Note 16(a) and note 2(d) to subchapter XIX of Chapter 98 in order to reflect these changes.
Other changes listed on the Proclamation includes the termination of Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) benefits for the Federation of Saint Kitts and Nevis effective January 1, 2014, and the extension through December 31, 2013 of the 2004 Agreement under the U.S.-Israel Free Trade Area Implementation Act of 1985 (USIFTA), which allows for a general level of reciprocal and mutually advantageous concessions with respect to agricultural trade with Israel.
The full text of the Proclamation is available online here.
