CNL, Product/Country Petitions for 2011 GSP Review now Due Dec 30
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative has extended the deadline until December 30, 2011 for all petitions to modify the list of products that are eligible for duty-free treatment under the Generalized System of Preferences program, including those requesting competitive need limitation (CNL) waivers, and to modify the GSP status of certain beneficiary developing countries because of country practices.
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Product Petitions May Be Submitted to Change GSP Benefits, Ask for CNL Waivers, Etc.
Interested parties, including foreign governments, may submit petitions to:
- Designate additional articles as eligible for GSP benefits, including to designate articles as eligible for GSP benefits only for countries designated as least-developed beneficiary developing countries, or only for countries designated as beneficiary sub-Saharan African countries under the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA);
- Withdraw, suspend or limit the application of duty-free treatment accorded under the GSP with respect to any article, either for all beneficiary developing countries, least-developed beneficiary developing countries or beneficiary sub-Saharan African countries, or for any of these countries individually;
- Waive the “competitive need limitations” (see below for info on CNLs1) for individual beneficiary developing countries with respect to specific GSP-eligible articles (these limits do not apply to least developed beneficiary developing countries or AGOA beneficiary sub-Saharan African countries); and
- Otherwise modify GSP coverage.
Country Practice Petitions May Be Submitted on GSP Eligibility Criteria
In addition, any interested party may also submit a petition to review the GSP eligibility of any beneficiary developing country with respect to any of the designation criteria listed in sections 502(b) or 502(c) of the Trade Act (19 USC 2462(b) and (c)).
Notice Extends Deadline for Submitting All Petitions to Dec 30
USTR states that its November notice announcing it was accepting petitions for the 2011 Annual GSP review stated that the deadline for submission of country practice petitions and for submission of product petitions, except for those requesting competitive need limitation (CNL) waivers, was December 5, 2011. It also stated that the deadline for submission of petitions requesting CNL waivers was December 16, 2011.
This notice extends the deadlines for the submission of all petitions to December 30, 2011.
Accepted Petitions to Be Announced Later
Decisions on which petitions are accepted for review will be announced later.
1Competitive need limits represent the maximum import level of a product that is eligible for duty-free treatment under the GSP. Once the limit is reached, trade is considered competitive," benefits are no longer needed, and imports of the article become ineligible for GSP treatment, unless a waiver is granted.
There are two types of CNLs - the value CNL (which is a dollar threshold) and the 50% CNL (equal to or greater than 50% of the value of total U.S. imports of the tariff number from all countries for that year). The USTR has previously explained that the President has the authority to waive both the value and 50% CNLs for country/tariff number combinations if an interested party petitions for a waiver before the country/tariff number combination exceeds a CNL.
(See ITT's Online Archives 11120124 for summary with details of the country/tariff pairs that may lose GSP benefits due to exceeding the CNLs and the opportunity for CNL waivers.
See ITT's Online Archives 11110211 for summary of USTR's original announcement of the petition due dates.
See ITT's Online Archives 11120221 for summary of USTR's updated GSP Guidebook for 2011.)