USTR accepting petitions for yearly GSP eligibility review

Stakeholders will have until midnight on April 16 to apply for changes to the program’s scope during the 2017/2018 eligibility review.    The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) is accepting petitions as part of its 2017/2018 Annual Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) eligibility review until midnight on April 16.
   USTR will consider petitions to add products to GSP eligibility, remove products from GSP eligibility for one or more countries, waive competitive need limitations (CNLs), deny de minimis waivers for products currently eligible for such waivers, redesignate currently excluded products, and to modify the GSP status of beneficiary countries because of country practices, USTR said.
   CNLs are built-in import ceilings to limit duty-free access to the U.S. to products and countries that might not otherwise be competitive.
   Statute requires GSP benefits for products from specified eligible countries to be terminated if those products account for 50 percent or more of the value of total U.S. imports of the product, or if they exceed a certain dollar value – $180 million in 2017 and $185 million in 2018.
   “De minimis waivers” refer to waivers from CNLs when total U.S. imports from all countries of a product are below a certain dollar threshold.
   The de minimis level rises by $500,000 each year. It was $23.5 million in 2017 and is $24 million in 2018.
   USTR said it won’t consider petitions submitted after the deadline, and that it will announce decisions on petitions accepted for review, along with a schedule for any related public hearings and the opportunity for public comment “at a later date.”