Biden Administration Supports Renewal of GSP
Last week, U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) Katherine Tai testified before the Senate Finance Committee and House Ways and Means Committee regarding President Biden’s 2021 trade policy agenda. In both hearings both Ambassador Tai and bi-partisan members of the Committees expressed strong support for renewal of the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) program. GSP expired on Dec. 31, 2020, meaning that U.S. travel goods imports from a wide range of developing countries, including Thailand, Cambodia, Burma (Myanmar), Indonesia, Sri Lanka, the Philippines, and Pakistan have paid full duties since January 1, 2021. U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has issued instructions on how importers can retain the right to collect refunds of duties paid if GSP is retroactively renewed. In 2020, U.S. travel goods imports from GSP countries increased 8.4%. GSP countries supply 16.3% of all U.S. travel goods imports today. TGA continues to lobby Congress for immediate and retroactive renewal of GSP. TGA urges you to write your members of Congress to urge them to retroactively renew GSP as soon as possible. It only takes a couple of minutes.