A bipartisan group of congressmen on July 17 introduced legislation in the House of Representatives to renew the Generalized System of Preferences Program. Reps. Dave Camp, R-Mich., Sandy Levin, D-Mich., Devin Nunes, R-Calif., and Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., introduced HR-2709 (here) to extend the GSP program until Sept. 30, 2015. The program is currently set to expire July 31. The renewal legislation makes no other changes GSP, amending only the expiration date.
While the decision to rescind General System of Preferences (GSP) status for Bangladesh is considered to be largely symbolic, the change is expected to reverberate among the U.S. business community, observers say. Although individual U.S. interests vary depending on scope and scale of specific relationships with Bangladeshi manufacturers, some U.S. importers will likely be forced to foster different manufacturing sources in the coming months. The United States Trade Representative (USTR) decided in late June to rescind GSP status for the South Asian nation (see 13062820) following a series of labor disasters in Bangladesh over the past year, culminating in the April 24 Rana Plaza factory fire that claimed nearly 1,200 lives
The U.S. International Trade Commission released “The Year in Trade 2012,” its annual overview of the previous year's trade-related activities. The Year in Trade 2012 includes complete listings of antidumping, countervailing duty, safeguard, intellectual property rights infringement, and section 301 cases undertaken by the U.S. government in 2012. In addition, the report covers:
Importers should continue to flag goods that are eligible for Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) beyond the expiration of the program on July 31, said CBP in a CSMS message. The normal duty rate should be paid for GSP goods following the expiration, but continued flagging of the imports will allow CBP to process automatic duty refunds if GSP is renewed with a retroactive clause, the agency said. Importers should use the special program indicator (SPI) A or A+, it said. Both GSP and the Andean Trade Preference Act (ATPA) will expire at the end of the month unless Congress renews them. "No corresponding procedure is available" for the Andean programs. The expiration of GSP won't affect payment of the merchandise processing fee, said CBP.
CBP is extending the comment period to Aug. 5, on the extension of an existing information collection, the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) Certificate of Origin. There are no changes to the information collected.
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The International Trade Commission posted its revised version of the Harmonized Tariff Schedule July 2, reflecting Generalized System of Preferences and other changes from proclamation 8997 (see 13070202), as well as technical amendments and new statistical suffixes for several subheadings. HTS 2013 Revision 1 also implements the U.S. Trade Representative’s March determination that Cote d’Ivoire qualifies for African Growth and Opportunity Act textile and apparel benefits (see 13031821). Most of the changes (here) are effective July 1.
As Ecuador surfaced as a possible asylum destination for NSA leaker Edward Snowden, two U.S. Senators challenged the country’s Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) eligibility, in statements released June 27. Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) (here) and U.S. Senator Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) (here) accused Ecuador of violating preferential status terms. The press releases followed an Ecuadorian government call to sever the preferential trade relationship, manifested through the Andean Trade Preference Act .
CBP said its Harmonized System Update (HSU) 1303 was created July 1, containing 1,303 ABI records and 190 harmonized tariff records. The update contains modifications made as a result of the June 27 Presidential Proclamation 8997, To Modify Duty-Free Treatment to the Generalized System of Preferences and for Other Purposes (see 13070202). It said changes also include those mandated by the 484 F Committee, Committee for Statistical Annotation of Tariff Schedules, effective July 1. Adjustments required by the verification of the 2013 Harmonized Tariff Schedule (HTS) are also included, CBP said in a CSMS message. The modified records can be retrieved electronically via the procedures indicated in the CATAIR. Further information: Jennifer Keeling, Jennifer.Keeling@dhs.gov.
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