The Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) issued a Federal Register notice today ([TEXT] [PDF]) announcing the availability of interim 2016 calendar year import statistics relating to the GSP Competitive Need Limitations (CNLs) program. The GSP CNL on duty-free importations will disqualify exportations from a beneficiary developing country (BDC) if the exported quantity of a GSP-eligible article entered in 2016 is either in excess of $175 million or has a value of 50% or more of the value of total imports of the eligible article; however, the percentage value limitation may be disregarded if total imports of an article do not exceed a de minimis level, equal to $23 million for 2016.
In order to provide advance notice of articles that may exceed the CNLs for 2016, the Office of the USTR has compiled import statistics for the first nine months of 2016 relating to CNLs. This information may be viewed at: https://ustr.gov/issue-areas/preferenceprograms/generalized-systempreferences-gsp/current-reviews/gsp-20162017.
Full calendar-year 2016 data for individual tariff subheadings will be available in February 2017 on the Web site of the U.S. International Trade Commission at http://dataweb.usitc.gov. The interim 2016 import statistics are organized to show, for each article, the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States (HTSUS) subheading and BDC of origin, the value of imports of the article from the specified country for the first nine months of 2016, and the corresponding share of total imports of that article from all countries. The list includes the GSP-eligible articles from BDCs that, based on interim nine-month 2016 data, exceed $110 million dollars, or an amount greater than 42 percent of the total value of U.S. imports of that product. In all, the following 11 products met the criteria to be placed on the list:
- 0410.00.00—Other edible products of animal origin (Indonesia)
- 0714.90.10—Fresh or chilled dasheens, whether or not sliced or in the form of pellets (Ecuador)
- 1104.29.90—Grains of cereals other than barley, oats or corn, hulled, pearled, clipped, sliced, kibbled or otherwise worked, but not rolled or flaked (Turkey)
- 2909.19.18—Ethers of acyclic monohydric alcohols & derivatives, not elsewhere specified (Brazil)
- 2933.99.22—Other heterocyclic aromatic or modified aromatic pesticides with nitrogen hereoatom(s) only, not elsewhere specified (India)
- 4011.20.10—New pneumatic radial tires, of rubber, of a kind used on buses or trucks (Indonesia)
- 4409.10.05—Coniferous wood continuously shaped along any of its ends, whether or not also continuously shaped along any of its edges or faces (Brazil)
- 6801.00.00—Setts, curbstones and flagstones, of natural stone (except slate) (Turkey)
- 6802.99.00—Monumental or building stone & articles thereof, not elsewhere specified, further worked than simply cut/sawn (Brazil)
- 8525.80.30—Television cameras, not elsewhere specified (Thailand)
- 9001.50.00—Spectacle lenses of materials other than glass, unmounted (Thailand)
The list published on the USTR Web site includes the relevant nine-month trade statistics for each of these products and is provided as a courtesy for informational purposes only. The list is based on interim 2016 trade data, and may not include all articles that may be affected by the GSP CNLs. Regardless of whether or not an article is included on the list referenced in this notice, all determinations and decisions regarding application of the CNLs of the GSP program will be based on full calendar year 2016 import data for each GSP eligible article. Each interested party is advised to conduct its own review of 2016 import data with regard to the possible application of GSP CNLs. Based on the notice announcing the 2016 GSP Review, which was published in the Federal Register on August 25, 2016, the deadline for submission of Petitions requesting waivers of CNLs is Friday, December 2, 2016, 5:00 p.m. (The notice and comments are available at https://www.regulations.gov/docket?D=USTR-2016-0009.)
