Caribbean Basin Economic Recovery Expansion Act of 1989

Caribbean Basin Economic Recovery Expansion Act of 1989 - Title I: Amendments to the Caribbean Basin Economic Recovery Act and Related Provisions - Subtitle A: Amendments to Caribbean Basin Economic Recovery Act - Amends the Caribbean Basin Economic Recovery Act (the Act) to repeal the termination of duty-free treatment of beneficiary countries.

Requires the United States Trade Representative (USTR) to establish with each beneficiary country guaranteed access levels for textile products assembled in such country from qualifying fabrics (fabrics formed and cut in the United States and certain fabrics of foreign manufacture which are cut in the United States). Authorizes the USTR to negotiate a bilateral agreement with each beneficiary establishing such guaranteed access levels. Makes such products eligible for duty-free treatment.

Provides that textile products assembled in a beneficiary country from qualifying fabric, incorporating findings and trimmings of foreign origin, are eligible for guaranteed access and duty-free treatment if such findings and trimmings do not exceed 25 percent of the cost of the components of the assembled product.

Expresses the sense of the Congress that: (1) the benefits granted through the establishment of guaranteed access levels in bilateral textile agreements should not result in any disadvantage to U.S. firms that seek export certificates or export visas which authorize shipments under specific limits; and (2) the USTR should obtain assurances from beneficiary countries which have been granted guaranteed access levels that such countries will administer export certificates or export visas in such a manner as to ensure fairness and nondiscriminatory treatment to such U.S. firms that seek allocations under specific limits rather than guaranteed access levels.

Declares that each quota article (any textile or apparel article that is imported under either a specific limit or a designated consultation level established in a bilateral textile agreement with a beneficiary country) that is entered shall be dutiable at a rate of 50 percent of the trade-weighted average duty rate for the textile category under which the quota article is classified, except when such duty rate is higher than the appropriate rate in general column one of the Harmonized Tariff Schedule.

Requires the Secretary of Commerce, with respect to each textile category under which one or more kinds of quota articles are classified, to determine the trade-weighted average of the general column one duty rate under the Harmonized Tariff Schedule for all classes or kinds of goods included within such category.

Declares that the rate of duty on footwear (other than leather footwear), handbag, luggage, flat good, work glove, or leather wearing apparel that is a product of a beneficiary country and was not designated on August 5, 1983, as an eligible article under the generalized system of preferences shall be equal to 50 percent of the general column one rate of duty under the Harmonized Tariff Schedule.

Provides that duty-free treatment provided under the Act shall not apply to: (1) textile and apparel articles; (2) certain articles to which reduced duties apply; (3) certain leather footwear; (4) canned tuna; (5) petroleum; and (6) watches and watch parts.

Prohibits the President from designating any country as a beneficiary country under the generalized system of preferences if such country has not or is not taking steps to afford internationally recognized worker rights to its workers in any designated zone in such country. Adds to the factors which the President must consider in determining whether to designate a country a beneficiary country the fact that such country has or has not afforded its workers such rights. Requires the President, not later than January 4, 1991, and biennially thereafter, to conduct a review of eligible countries based on such considerations.

Requires the President to submit a specified report to the Congress every three years.

Declares that it is the sense of the Congress that special efforts should be undertaken to improve the ability of specified Eastern Caribbean states and Belize to benefit from the Act.

Subtitle B: Amendments to the Harmonized Tariff Schedule and Other Provisions Affecting CBI Beneficiary Countries -

Amends the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States with respect to the allocation of quotas on sugars imported from beneficiary countries. Prohibits the USTR, in allocating any limitation on such imports, from: (1) reducing the percentage allocation made to the Philippines; (2) making an allocation to the Republic of South Africa; or (3) allowing the aggregate of the amounts of the base quota allocations to Caribbean Basin Initiative (CBI) countries for any quota year beginning after December 31, 1988, to be less than 371,449 metric tons, raw value.

Requires any allocation for any quota of imported sugar from specified foreign countries for any year to be reallocated on a pro-rata basis among the CBI countries receiving allocations for that year if such allocation is suspended or terminated due to a threat to U.S. national security or foreign policy.

Authorizes the President to enter into trade agreements with foreign governments for the purpose of granting compensation if the United States takes specified action inconsistent with its international obligations (including the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade).

Grants duty-free treatment of articles (not over $600 in value) acquired in a beneficiary country. Increases from $800 to $1200 the personal exemption from customs duties of articles acquired in the U.S. insular possessions and from other countries.

Prohibits any article (except a textile or apparel article) from being treated as a foreign article, or subject to duty, if: (1) it is assembled in whole of U.S. components or processed in whole of ingredients (other than water) that are a product of the United States in a beneficiary country; and (2) neither the U.S. components or ingredients, after exportation from the United States, nor the article itself, before importation into the United States, enters the foreign commerce of any foreign country other than a beneficiary country.

Declares that the President may proclaim new rules for determining whether articles originate in beneficiary countries. Requires the President to consult with specified congressional committees and beneficiary countries before proclaiming such rules.

Amends the Tariff Act of 1930 to require the International Trade Commission, when making determinations as to material injury with respect to antidumping and countervailing duty cases, to assess cumulatively the volume and effect of imports from a beneficiary country under the Caribbean Basin Economic Recovery Act with respect to imports of like products from other beneficiary countries.

Amends the Tax Reform Act of 1986 to treat certain ethyl alcohols produced in an insular possession or beneficiary country as indigenous products of such possession or country if certain requirements are met.

Amends the Trade Act of 1974 to require the Secretary of the Treasury to prescribe regulations providing for the duty-free treatment of articles that are wholly the growth, product, or manufacture of beneficiary countries.

Title II: Scholarship Assistance and Tourism Promotion - Directs the Administrator of the Agency for International Development to establish a scholarship assistance program to provide scholarships to enable students from eligible countries in the Caribbean and Central America to study in the United States.

Expresses the sense of the Congress that increased tourism should be developed in the Caribbean Basin region as a central part of the Caribbean Basin Initiative program.

Directs the Secretary of Commerce to complete the tourism development study of the Caribbean Basin begun in 1986.

Directs the Commissioner of Customs to implement a pilot preclearance program during FY 1990 and 1991 to assess the extent to which the availability of preclearance operations can assist in the development of tourism in the Caribbean Basin. Prohibits the commencement of such operations unless the Commissioner of Customs and the Commissioner of Immigration and Naturalization make a specified joint certification. Requires the Commissioner of Customs to submit to the Congress a report regarding such program.