U.S. Trade Representative Susan C. Schwab today announced that the Bush Administration will begin the second phase of its review of the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) program, which provides duty-free treatment for goods from 133 beneficiary developing countries.Based on information obtained since the review began in October 2005, the Administration is seeking public input to determine whether the eligibility of certain beneficiaries should be changed consistent with the statutory criteria.
"For over 30 years, Congress has given the GSP program broad bipartisan support. We believe this program serves as an important bridge for developing countries to facilitate their transition from unilateral preferences to full economic partnership," said Ambassador Schwab. "Both the United States and participating countries benefit from expanded trade under GSP, and it is important that this program be reauthorized when it expires at the end of the year."
"One of the concerns that Congress has raised is that GSP benefits go largely to a few countries, while many developing countries are not trading much under the program. We want to ensure that we are operating the program as Congress intended. The review I am announcing today, the first in twenty years, will help make certain that we are administering the program consistent with statutory criteria. Our goal is for more countries to benefit from the program and use trade in support of their economic development."
The Bush administration will review whether to "limit, suspend or withdraw" the eligibility of 13 countries that either shipped more than $100 million worth of goods to the United States under the program in 2005 or accounted for more than 0.25% world goods exports, the U.S. Trade Representative's office said.
The targeted countries are Argentina, Brazil, Croatia, India, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Philippines, Romania, Russia, South Africa, Thailand, Turkey and Venezuela, USTR said.
