On July 28, 2015, US Customs & Border Protection (CBP) published Federal Register Notice (FRN) 80 FR 44986 announcing the renewal of the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP), effective July 29, 2015 through December 31, 2017.
Since December of 2010, the GSP program has expired twice, with congressional renewal taking months to obtain in both situations. During those expired time frames, importers normally benefiting from duty-free GSP transactions were required to pay full duties on all subsequent transactions. (Note: Both renewals also carried retroactive refunds of those duties paid, but that refund condition is NOT automatic, also requiring congressional approval.)
It is not too soon for potentially affected importers to plan for the next GSP expiration on December 31st of this year. For US-based importers, part of that “plan” should include contacting their congressional representatives to ensure those representatives are aware of the importance of the GSP benefits to the importer; and to inquire about the potential for GSP renewal prior to expiration.
Livingston International, Inc. will continue to monitor this situation as 2017 progresses. Any updates will be posted here, on the Livingston website.
For general GSP references purposes, see the CBP website.
Your general questions about this regulatory update may be directed to Livingston’s US Regulatory Affairs group: usregaffairs@livingstonintl.com.