USTR Announces the Petitions Accepted for 2006 GSP Annual Product and Country Practices Reviews
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) has issued a notice announcing the product and country practice petitions that are accepted for further review in the 2006 Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) Annual Review, and setting forth the schedule for comments and public hearing on these petitions.
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
If your job depends on informed compliance, you need International Trade Today. Delivered every business day and available any time online, only International Trade Today helps you stay current on the increasingly complex international trade regulatory environment.
The USTR notes that acceptance of a petition for review does not indicate any opinion with respect to its disposition. Acceptance indicates only that the listed petition has been found eligible for review by the interagency Trade Policy Staff Committee (TPSC).
Eight Country/Product Petitions Requesting CNL Waiver Accepted
The petitions accepted for the 2006 GSP Annual Review request the waiver of the competitive need limitations (CNLs) for the below-listed country/product combinations (all of which are currently eligible for GSP duty-free benefits):
(According to USTR, petitioned waivers may only be sought before a product has exceeded the CNLs for a country. If a CNL is exceeded, and no waiver of any type has been granted, the product's eligibility from the beneficiary country will terminate July 1 of the following year (in this case, July 1, 2007).)
| HTS Number | Country | Brief Description of Product |
|---|---|---|
| 2001.10.00 | India | Cucumbers including gherkins, prepared or preserved by vinegar or acetic acid |
| 2836.91.00 | Argentina | Lithium carbonates |
| 4011.20.10 | Thailand | New pneumatic radial tires, of kind used on buses or trucks |
| 5703.10.20 | India | Hand-hooked carpets and other textile floor coverings, tufted, whether or not made up, of wool or fine animal hair |
| 7202.99.20 | Argentina | Calcium silicon ferroalloys |
| 7403.11.00 | Brazil | Refined copper cathodes and sections of cathodes |
| 7408.11.60 | Brazil | Refined copper wire with maximum cross-sectional dimension over 6 mm not over 9.5 mm |
| 8528.12.80 | India | Color television reception apparatus, video display diagonal over 34.29 cm incorporating a VCR or player |
One Country Practice Petition Accepted for 2006 GSP Annual Review
According to the USTR, one country practice petition has been accepted for the 2006 GSP Annual Review.
| Country | Action |
|---|---|
| Niger | Worker Rights |
(19 USC 2462(d) states that the President may withdraw, suspend, or limit the application of the duty-free treatment accorded by the GSP with respect to any country. In taking any such action, the President shall consider the factors set forth in 19 USC 2461 and 2462(c), which list factors affecting a country's GSP designation (e.g, protection of intellectual property rights (IPR), workers rights, economic development level), etc.)
One Country Practices Review Closed
In the 2005 GSP Annual Review, the TPSC accepted for review a country practices petition regarding worker rights in Uganda. (The petitioner had requested that Uganda's GSP eligiblity be removed.) The USTR states that Uganda has made considerable progress over the last year in improving its protection of labor rights and, based on that progress, the TPSC has decided to close the country practices review of Uganda.
GSP Subcommittee Invites Comments, Announces Schedule for Proceedings
The USTR states that the GSP Subcommittee will hold an open hearing on February 16, 2007 in Washington, DC, and provides the deadlines for requests to make oral presentations and testimony at this hearing. The USTR notes that post-hearing briefs or statements must be received by 5:00 p.m. on March 9, 2007.
In addition, the International Trade Commission (ITC) has scheduled hearings on whether any industry in the U.S. is likely to be adversely affected by the CNL waivers proposed by these petitions. The ITC is scheduled to publish a report on the product petitions listed above in April 2007 and comments on those products would be due 10 days after the ITC date of publication.
Modifications to the list of articles eligible for GSP duty-free treatment resulting from the 2006 Annual Review will be announced on or about June 30, 2007, and any changes will take effect on the effective date announced.
USTR Contact - GSP Subcommittee (202) 395-6971
USTR Notice (FR Pub 01/17/07) available at http://a257.g.akamaitech.net/7/257/2422/01jan20071800/edocket.access.gpo.gov/2007/pdf/E7-474.pdf.
List of petitions accepted for 2006 GSP Annual Review available on the USTR's Web site at http://www.ustr.gov/assets/Trade_Development/Preference_Programs/GSP/asset_upload_file19_10292.pdf.
BP Notes
The Tax Relief and Health Care Act of 2006, which was signed into law on December 20, 2006 (Public Law (P.L.) 109-432), extended the standard GSP program (i.e., A , A*, and A) for non-African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) beneficiary countries through December 31, 2008. P.L. 109-432 also tightened the GSP CNL waivers.
The USTR has previously issued a press release regarding the impact of P.L. 109-432's CNL amendments which included a preliminary list of country/product combinations that could lose GSP benefits as a result of the amendments. Subscribers should note that it does not appear that petitions were accepted for any of the country/product combinations included on the USTR's preliminary list.
The USTR has also previously stated that it expects to issue a Federal Register notice in late February 2007, when full-year 2006 data are available, that will identify those waivers that meet either of the new thresholds established in P.L. 109-432 and are subject to potential revocation.
(See ITT's Online Archives or 12/22/06, 06122205, for BP summary of USTR press release on P.L. 109-432's CNL amendments and preliminary list of country/production combinations that could lose GSP due to new CNL rules.)