USTR COMPLETES REVIEW OF GSP FOR 2001

USTR COMPLETES REVIEW OF GSP FOR 2001

USTR COMPLETES REVIEW OF GSP FOR 2001

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative has recently completed its review of the Generalized System of Preferences and made several changes.

   The GSP program, which allows developing countries to ship certain approve products to the United States duty-free, has been in place since the implementation of the Trade Act of 1974.

   Each year the USTR’s Trade Policy Staff Committee conducts a review to consider changes to GSP. The committee reviewed the 2001 De Minimus Waiver and Redesignation Reviews. The appraised import value of each GSP-eligible product for 2000 was reviewed to determine if certain products from the various GSP beneficiary countries exceeded the 2000 GSP “competitive need limitations.”

   The changes, which took effect this month, include:

   * The president’s waiver of competitive need limitation to India for several products.

   * The redesignation of certain GSP-eligible products which previously exceeded the competitive need limitations but fell below that in 2000 ($95 million or 50 percent of total U.S. imports of the article).

   * The granting of de minimus waivers to certain countries for certain articles that exceeded the 50 percent import share of competitive need limitations; the termination of certain countries from GSP.

   * The addition of Georgia to the GSP list of beneficiary countries.