USTR hearing to review countries’ GSP eligibility

Laos will be considered as a new beneficiary to the Generalized System of Preferences.    The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative on Nov. 29 will hold a public hearing on the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) country practice reviews of Bolivia, Ecuador, Georgia, Indonesia, Iraq, Thailand and Uzbekistan, and the country designation review of Laos, USTR said.
   The hearing will be held at 10 a.m. at USTR’s annex in Washington, D.C.
   The review will focus on whether Bolivia, Georgia, Iraq, Thailand and Uzbekistan are meeting the GSP eligibility criterion requiring a GSP beneficiary country to afford workers internationally recognized worker rights and whether Ecuador is meeting the eligibility criterion requiring beneficiary countries to act in good faith “in recognizing as binding or in enforcing applicable arbitral awards.”
   The review also will focus on whether Indonesia and Uzbekistan are meeting the eligibility criterion requiring beneficiaries to adequately protect intellectual property rights and consider whether Laos meets all GSP eligibility criteria and should be newly designated as a GSP beneficiary, USTR said.
   USTR will accept public comments, prehearing briefs and requests to appear at the public hearing through Nov. 13 and post-hearing briefs through Dec. 17.
   AFL-CIO petitioned for the Georgia, Iraq and Thailand worker rights reviews; the International Intellectual Property Alliance (IIPA) petitioned for the Indonesia and Uzbekistan IPR reviews; USTR petitioned for the Bolivia review, which will focus on worker rights and child labor; Chevron petitioned for the Ecuador arbitral awards review; the International Labor Rights Forum petitioned for the Uzbekistan worker rights and child labor review; and Laos petitioned for its own new eligibility review.