GSP Petitions Due by April 16
Parties that wish to add to or remove products from the Generalized System of Preferences, change the GSP status of beneficiary countries, waive competitive need limitations, or oppose de minimis waivers must file their petitions with the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative by midnight on April 16, the agency said in a notice. If an importer is interested in retaining GSP status for a product on the de minimis list -- a product for which total imports from all countries did not exceed $23.5 million in 2017 -- the importer does not need to make a request for a waiver. However, parties that wish to contest a de minimis waiver should do so at regulations.gov.
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GSP provides duty-free treatment on more than 3,500 products from developing countries, and an additional 1,500 products are eligible only when imported from least-developed beneficiary countries. Back in November, USTR published the list of 11 products that are due to fall off the GSP list because either imports have risen above $180 million, or because one country has more than half the U.S. import share (see 1711130005). Those items, unless granted a waiver, will be removed from GSP on Nov. 1.
The USTR said petitions that were previously submitted regarding GSP waivers or products do not need to be resubmitted. The office, which makes its recommendation to the president, will consider GSP eligibility based on how the duty-free status will further economic development of developing countries, how eliminating tariffs will affect U.S. producers, and how competitive the country is in that sort of product. It also looks at how other major developed countries treat those imports.
(Federal Register 04/04/2018)