U.S. touts benefits of GSP for poor countries

U.S. touts benefits of GSP for poor countries    The U.S. government reported that about $17.7 billion in products from developing countries were imported into the United States in 2002 under its Generalized System of Preference program.
   GSP applies to certain approved imports from more than 140 designated developing countries and territories. The program has been in place in the United States since 1976, and was reauthorized by Congress in the 2002 Trade Act through calendar year 2006.
   “The U.S. GSP program is designed to integrate developing countries into the international trading system in a manner commensurate with their development,” the U.S. government said in a fact sheet released at the World Trade Organization ministerial meeting in Cancun, Mexico this week.
   “The program achieves these ends by making it easier for imports from developing economies to compete in the U.S. market with imports from the industrialized nations,” the fact sheet said.