The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) has issued a notice announcing that it has initiated a review of and is soliciting public comment by August 25, 2006 on the designation of East Timor for the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) program. According to the notice, the USTR will determine if East Timor meets the eligibility criteria of the GSP program and should be designated as a GSP least-developed beneficiary developing country (LDBDC).
Generalized System of Preferences (GSP)
The Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) is a trade preference program established by the Trade Act of 1974, which promoted economic development by eliminating duties on many products when they were imported from one of the 119 countries and territories designated as developing. The program expired in December 2020 and is pending renewal in Congress. Should Congress renew the program with a retroactive refund clause, CBP will refund duties for entries eligible for GSP. Under the GSP, goods that are entirely produced or manufactured in a beneficiary developing country may qualify for duty-free entry under GSP; all third-party materials must undergo a substantial transformation defined as at least 35% of the good’s value having been added in the beneficiary country. The goods must also be “imported directly” from the GSP eligible country.
On July 27, 2006, President Bush issued Proclamation 8039 to amend the Harmonized Tariff Schedule (HTS), etc., to implement the U.S.-Bahrain Free Trade Agreement (BFTA), etc.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has issued a notice announcing that the Customs Electronic Bulletin Board (CEBB) has been retired and all valid materials have been migrated to updated systems, including cbp.gov. CBP's notice notes certain new locations for various information, as the CEBB page itself will be retired on September 30, 2006. (CBP notice, undated, available at http://www.cbp.gov/xp/cgov/import/communications_to_trade/cebb_linklist.xml)
On June 30, 2006, President Bush issued Proclamation 8034 to amend the Harmonized Tariff Schedule (HTS), etc., to implement the U.S.-Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement (DR-CAFTA) for Guatemala.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) has announced the opportunity to submit petitions for the 2006 Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) Product and Country Eligibility Practices Review (2006 Annual GSP Review).
The International Trade Commission (ITC) has posted to its Web site an updated version of the 2006 Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the U.S. (HTS) dated July 1, 2006 (Supplement 1).
On June 30, 2006, President Bush issued Proclamation 8033 to "modify duty-free treatment under the Generalized System of Preferences".
On June 30, 2006, President Bush issued Proclamation 8034 to amend the Harmonized Tariff Schedule (HTS), etc., to implement the U.S.-Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement (DR-CAFTA) for Guatemala.
In the June 7, 2006 issue of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Bulletin (CBPBulletin) (Vol. 40, No. 24), CBP issued a notice proposing to modify a rate of duty and NAFTA eligibility ruling on a sugar and gelatin blended in a foreign trade zone (FTZ). CBP states that it is also proposing to revoke any treatment it has previously accorded to substantially identical transactions.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) has submitted to Congress the Administration's sixth of eight annual reports, entitled "2006 Comprehensive Report on U.S. Trade and Investment Policy Toward Sub-Saharan Africa and Implementation of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA)."