The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative has issued a notice announcing a January 24, 2012 public hearing regarding ongoing reviews of certain outstanding Generalized System of Preferences country practice petitions.
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.
Broker Power is providing readers with some of the top stories for November 28 -- December 2, 2011 in case they were missed last week.
In May 2011, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative updated its guidebook on the U.S. Generalized System of Preferences to facilitate public understanding of the GSP program. Among other topics, the guidebook provides information on articles eligible for duty-free treatment, articles prohibited from receiving such treatment, Competitive Need Limitations, and reimbursement for tariffs after retroactive renewal of the program.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative is providing advanced notice of 24 country/tariff number pairs that may exceed the 2011 Competitive Need Limitations (CNLs) under the Generalized System of Preferences program and could possibly lose their GSP eligibility on July 1, 2012.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative has issued a notice to inform the public of the availability of import statistics for the first nine months of 2011 relating to competitive need limitations (CNLs) under the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) program. These import statistics identify some country and tariff pairs for which the 2011 trade levels may exceed statutory CNLs. Interested parties may find this information useful in deciding whether to submit a petition to waive the CNLs for individual beneficiary developing countries (BDC) with respect to specific GSP-eligible articles.
On November 15, 2011, senior U.S. and Sri Lankan officials met at the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative for the ninth meeting of the U.S.-Sri Lanka Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA) Council. The parties discussed market access, the U.S. Generalized System of Preferences (GSP), trade promotion efforts, intellectual property rights, and sector-specific challenges to investment. Discussion also included the importance of considering gender issues in setting trade and investment policy, and in expanding technical cooperation between the two countries.
Broker Power is providing readers with some of the top stories for October 31 - November 4, 2011 in case they were missed last week.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative has issued a notice announcing the initiation of a review to consider the designation of the Republic of South Sudan as a beneficiary developing country (BDC) under the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) program, including whether South Sudan should also be designated as a Least Developed Beneficiary Country (LDBC).
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has issued a CSMS message stating that on Friday, November 4, 2011 at approximately 7:00 a.m., the Automated Commercial System (ACS) will be updated to allow the trade to obtain duty-free entry for a GSP (SPI A) claim. According to CBP sources, this is one day earlier than the statutory date of November 5 (which falls on a Saturday), and would apply to ACE entry summaries too.