GSP Countries Ask Congress to Renew GSP Program
An alliance of more than 25 GSP nations on Feb. 21 called on the U.S. Congress to renew the Generalized System of Preferences benefits program. The program authorization lapsed in December 2020 and has yet to be renewed. The Alliance of GSP Countries includes Pakistan, Egypt, Thailand and Argentina, among others.
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.
“With [the] 118th Congress in place, we hope there is a window of opportunity for bipartisan legislation renewing" the GSP program, they wrote in the letter, according to a news release from the Embassy of Pakistan.
“By enabling developing and the least developed countries in having better access to the US market, the Program has not only served the beneficiary countries but has also facilitated US economy and businesses, both small and large companies, by importing products, including raw material, and maintaining comparative advantage,” Masood Khan, Pakistan's ambassador to the U.S., said in remarks about the GSP program at a meeting in Washington of the alliance.
The letter was addressed to the chairs and ranking members of the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee, the House Foreign Relations Committee, the Senate Finance Committee and the House Ways and Means Committee. Those committees did not immediately respond to a request for comment.