The following is excerpted from today’s article by the American Shipper.
U.S. importers expressed their “extreme disappointment” in the Congress for its failure to renew the Generalized System of Preferences before it expired July 31.
GSP is a 37-year-old trade preference program designed to promote economic growth in the developing world by providing preferential, duty-free entry for up to 5,000 products.
With the August work period in Congress beginning Aug. 5, GSP will remain expired for at least six weeks – and maybe longer – and companies need to find tens of millions of dollars to pay these import taxes. “The majority of GSP importers are small businesses that can least afford the sudden imposition of these taxes,” said the Coalition for GSP, a group of more than 300 U.S. companies and trade associations...
This article is available in its entirety at: http://www.americanshipper.com/Main/News/Importers_call_failed_GSP_renewal_difficult_to_swa_54642.aspx?taxonomy=Regulatory1 (subscription may be required)