International Trade Today is providing readers with some of the top stories for July 15-19 in case they were missed.
The Obama Administration published the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) action plan provided to the government of Bangladesh for the possible reinstatement of its trade benefits, according to a joint statement by the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR), the Department of Labor and State Department. USTR, which had previously discussed the plan only in broad outlines (see 13071613), said that making the action plan public was “a means to reinforce and support the efforts of all international stakeholders to promote improved worker rights and worker safety in Bangladesh.” The joint statement also said that the U.S. would join forces with the European Union, Bangladesh and the International Labor Organization (ILO) to implement goals from the Sustainability Compact, which are broadly consistent with the published GSP Action Plan.
Despite once bleak projections for Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) renewal, Congressional leaders rallied together in recent days to introduce clean GSP renewal bills in both halls of Congress in bipartisan fashion. The House Ways and Means Committee introduced a bill on July 17 and the Senate introduced an identical bill the following day. Both pieces of legislation push the GSP expiration date until September 2015. The developments on Capitol Hill reflect promising momentum in the effort to pass legislation prior to the July 31 GSP expiration.
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont. and Ranking Member Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, introduced Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) renewal legislation late July 18. The announcement comes in the wake of House GSP renewal legislation, introduced July 17 (see 13071819). The GSP system is slated to expire on July 31, at which point U.S. importers will face steep hikes in tariff rates unless renewal law is passed.
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.
International Trade Today is providing readers with some of the top stories for July 1-5 in case they were missed.