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Optimism is growing within industry and Congress that the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative will move in favor of duty-free benefits for 27 travel goods for all Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) beneficiary countries following a further review. The Obama administration on June 30 surprised industry and Congress when it decided to defer benefits for travel goods originating from non-least developed beneficiary developing countries (LDBDCs), as defined by GSP (see 1607060014). The USTR reopened its evaluation of whether to add the products in late August (see 1608240018).
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative is seeking additional comments on the potential addition of travel goods for more developed Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) countries, as well as possible changes to the wider list of products eligible for GSP duty-free treatment, USTR said (here). House lawmakers (see 1607280024) and industry (see 1608090012) recently directly appealed to President Barack Obama to reconsider his June 30 decision to defer approval of GSP duty benefits for 27 travel goods imported from non-least developed beneficiary developing countries (LDBDCs) (see 1607010008). The agency is also considering modifications of the GSP status of beneficiary developing countries (BDCs) due to certain practices, it said.
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Any importers that have “reason to believe” they have not been refunded duties paid due to the recent lapse of the Generalized System of Preferences program should contact Randy Mitchell at randy.mitchell@cbp.dhs.gov to inquire about their case, a CBP spokeswoman said. The agency recently said it has completed the processing of refunds of duties paid during the two-year lapse of GSP prior to its renewal in 2015, refunding approximately $1.31 billion in duties (see 1608080023).
More than 100 industry organizations, ranging from broker associations to textile manufacturers, directly appealed to President Barack Obama to reconsider his decision to defer approval of duty benefits for 27 travel goods imported from many countries under the Generalized System of Preferences (here). In a letter signed by groups including the Express Association of America, the U.S. Fashion Industry Association and the Pacific Coast Council of Customs Brokers and Freight Forwarders, companies and industry associations called on Obama to decide to apply duty-free approvals for the goods “definitely no later” than Oct. 1, to boost development before GSP expires at the end of 2017. “Deferring a decision to make eligible all GSP countries for travel goods, which include backpacks, purses, suitcases, and laptop cases, creates business uncertainty and delays the investment that will create and support jobs in developing countries as well as jobs here at home," the letter said.
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CBP has completed the processing of refunds of duties paid during the two-year lapse in the General System of Preferences program prior to its renewal in 2015, a CBP spokeswoman said. The agency refunded approximately $1.31 billion in duties paid on goods that would have been GSP-eligible if the program had not expired. Processing was completed in two phases, with CBP automatically refunding duties paid on entries that included the GSP special program indicator (SPI) in phase one, then moving to the remaining 2 percent of entry summaries with special indicators that "could not be scripted" (see 1507210023). CBP also accepted written duty refund requests. President Barack Obama retroactively renewed GSP in June 2015 (see 1506290045).
Protests may be filed to claim Generalized System of Preferences benefits, the Court of International Trade said in an Aug. 4 decision (here) that appears to contradict current CBP policy. Though it dismissed an importer’s challenge on a technicality, the court found flaws with the basis of CBP’s 2014 directive that ports no longer accept protests used to claim GSP duty-free treatment post-liquidation (see 14081320). CIT “essentially ruled that the government was wrong in taking the position that GSP claims cannot be raised in a protest,” said John Peterson of Neville Peterson, who represented the importer, Zojirushi America.