Industry News

GSP Renewal Sent to President

June 26, 2015


        On June 25, 2015, Congress finally passed a bill for the renewal of the duty preference program known as the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) which had lapsed in 2013. GSP is a trade program designed to promote economic growth in the developing world by providing preferential duty-free entry for many selected products from designated beneficiary countries.  GSP was reinstated until December 31, 2017.  On June 26, 2015, this bill, the Trade Preferences Extension Act of 2015, was presented to the President for signature.
        The renewal of GSP is retroactive to July 31, 2013, the date that GSP expired; entries of covered articles are to be liquidated or reliquidated as if they were made on the effective date of the Act.  This means that importers can receive refunds of duties paid; these refunds are to be paid, without interest, within 90 days of the liquidation.  However, the Act specifies that such liquidations can only be made by CBP if a request is filed with Customs and Border Protection within 180 days of the date of enactment of the Act.  The request must contain sufficient information to enable CBP to locate the entry (or reconstruct the entry if it cannot be located).  Upon approval of a request, CBP will liquidate or reliquidate the entry with duty free GSP treatment.   Please contact a Barnes/Richardson attorney if you have further questions or need assistance filing a request for retroactive GSP treatment.  

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