USTR Denies Most Waivers in GSP Review, Removing Many Goods From Eligibility
President Donald Trump issued Presidential Proclamation 9813 on Oct. 30, implementing the final results of the 2017-18 Generalized System of Preferences review and, in the process, making changes to tariff classification provisions for fruit juices. According to the recently issued results of the review, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative is denying nearly all requests for waivers, removing nearly all country-product pairs that exceeded import limits from GSP eligibility.
Changes to the tariff schedule and tariff treatment from the proclamation take effect Nov. 1. USTR granted a petition to remove cherry juice from Turkey from GSP eligibility, and as a result new 8-digit subheading 2009.89.65 is being created for cherry juice with the special program indicator (SPI) “A*” to indicate GSP eligibility with some country exceptions. Former subheading 2009.89.60 for “other” fruit juice is deleted, and new subheading 2009.89.70 is being created for “other” fruit juice besides cherry juice (also designated A* due to an existing country exception for Ukraine). A second petition to remove from GSP eligibility nonadhesive plates, sheets, film, foil and strip of polymethyl methacrylate under subheading 3920.51.50 for Indonesia and Thailand was denied.
Petitions for New GSP Products Denied
In contrast with previous reviews, USTR denied nearly all petitions it received in the course of the 2017-18 review that would have resulted in increased duty preferences. All petitions to add new products to the GSP program were denied:
HTS Subheading | Description | Decision |
---|---|---|
0808.30.40 | Pears, fresh, if entered during the period from July 1 through the following March 31, inclusive | Denied |
0814.00.80 | Peel of citrus fruit, excl. orange or citron and peel, nesi, of melon, fresh, frozen, dried or provisionally preserved | Denied |
1207.29.00 | Cotton seeds, whether or not broken, other than seed for sowing | Denied |
1512.11.00 | Sunflower-seed or safflower oil, crude, and their fractions, whether or not refined, not chemically modified | Denied |
2008.99.05 | Apples, otherwise prepared or preserved, nesi B | Denied |
2918.99.05 | p-Anisic acid; clofibrate and 3-phenoxybenzoic acid | Denied |
2918.99.43 | Aromatic carboxylic acids with additional oxygen function and their anhydrides, halide, etc deriv described in add US note 3 to sect VI, nesoi | Denied |
2918.99.47 | Other aromatic carboxylic acids with additional oxygen function and their anhydrides, halide, etc deriv (excluding goods in add US note 3 to sec VI) | Denied |
4010.33.30 | Transmission V-belts of vulcanized rubber, V-ribbed, circumference exceeding 180 cm but not exceeding 240 cm, combined with textile materials | Denied |
One Petition for Redesignation of Country-Product Pair Granted
Similarly, USTR denied all but one petition to redesignate a product as eligible for GSP. The only exception was ammonium perrhenate under subheading 2841.90.20 from Kazakhstan. For that subheading, the proclamation replaces SPI "A*" with SPI "A" to designate eligibility from all GSP beneficiaries. Results for petitions for redesignation are as follows:
HTS Subheading | Description | Country | Decision |
---|---|---|---|
2007.99.48 | Apple, quince and pear pastes and purees, being cooked preparations | Argentina | Denied |
2306.30.00 | Oilcake and other solid residues, resulting from the extraction of vegetable fats or oils, of sunflower seeds | Argentina | Denied |
2841.90.20 | Ammonium perrhenate | Kazakhstan | Granted |
2909.50.40 | Odoriferous or flavoring compounds of ether-phenols, etheralcohol-phenols & their halogenated, sulfonated, nitrated, nitrosated derivatives | Indonesia | Denied |
4107.11.80 | Full grain unsplit whole bovine (not buffalo) nesoi and equine leather nesoi, w/o hair, prepared after tanning or crusting, fancy, not 4114 | Argentina | Denied |
4412.31.41* | Plywood sheets n/o 6mm thick, with specified tropical wood outer ply, with face ply nesoi, not surface covered beyond clear/transparent | Indonesia | Denied |
6802.93.00 | Monumental or building stone & arts. thereof, of granite, further worked than simply cut/sawn, nesoi | India | Denied |
7202.93.80 | Ferroniobium, nesoi | Brazil | Denied |
Some Petitions Granted for CNL Waivers; All Petitions Denied for de Minimis Waivers
USTR did grant some petitions for waivers from competitive need limitations waivers, which means some products will continue to be eligible for GSP despite exceeding annual import limits. Results of the review for CNL waivers are as follows:
HTS Subheading | Description | Country | Decision |
---|---|---|---|
0410.00.00 | Edible products of animal origin, nesi | Indonesia | Granted |
2836.91.00 | Lithium carbonates | Argentina | Granted |
3301.13.00 | Essential oils of lemon | Argentina | Denied |
6802.99.00 | Monumental or building stone & arts. thereof, nesoi, further worked than simply cut/sawn, nesoi | Brazil | Denied |
7202.50.00 | Ferrosilicon chromium | Kazakhstan | Granted |
But in contrast to previous GSP reviews, all requests for de minimis waivers were denied by USTR. These waivers are usually granted in cases in which a single country exceeds import limits, but overall imports of the product from all countries fall below a specified limit. The denial of all de minimis waiver requests comes despite USTR's receipt of only a single formal objection, according to the ITC's comment request in the GSP review (see 1805240023). As a result of USTR's denials of waiver requests (or other reasons not detailed in the proclamation or USTR's notice), the following country-product pairs are now ineligible for GSP (and SPI "A" for any of these subheadings will be replaced with "A*"):
HTS | Country | HTS | Country | HTS | Country |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
0304.91.90 | Ecuador | 2834.10.10 | India | 2935.90.20 | India |
0304.92.90 | Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas) | 2840.11.00 | Turkey | 3301.13.00 | Argentina |
0304.93.90 | Suriname | 2841.61.00 | India | 3603.00.60 | Bosnia and Herzegovina |
0305.20.20 | Pakistan | 2841.70.50 | India | 3802.90.10 | Brazil |
0405.20.80 | India | 2844.30.10 | India | 3824.99.32 | Brazil |
0603.13.00 | Thailand | 2903.83.00 | India | 3920.94.00 | India |
0710.80.50 | Turkey | 2904.10.08 | India | 4012.90.45 | Brazil |
0711.40.00 | India | 2904.99.04 | India | 4101.90.40 | Brazil |
0713.34.20 | Belize | 2906.19.30 | Brazil | 4104.11.30 | India |
0713.60.60 | India | 2907.15.10 | India | 4107.12.40 | India |
0714.30.60 | The Philippines | 2907.29.25 | India | 4107.19.40 | India |
0714.50.60 | Ecuador | 2908.19.20 | India | 4107.91.40 | India |
0802.80.10 | India | 2909.19.18 | Brazil | 4107.99.80 | Brazil |
0810.60.00 | Thailand | 2913.00.50 | India | 4411.12.90 | Brazil |
0813.40.10 | Thailand | 2914.31.00 | India | 4418.73.30 | Thailand |
0813.40.80 | Thailand | 2914.40.10 | Brazil | 4602.19.23 | The Philippines |
1103.19.14 | India | 2915.50.20 | India | 5209.31.30 | India |
1202.41.40 | Ecuador | 2916.19.50 | Indonesia | 5209.41.30 | India |
1301.90.40 | India | 2918.13.50 | India | 5607.90.35 | The Philippines |
1602.50.05 | Brazil | 2920.23.00 | India | 5702.92.10 | India |
1702.90.10 | Argentina | 2921.42.21 | India | 6802.99.00 | Brazil |
1806.90.01 | Ecuador | 2921.42.23 | India | 7113.20.25 | India |
2001.90.45 | India | 2922.29.26 | India | 7202.11.10 | Brazil |
2005.80.00 | Thailand | 2924.29.36 | India | 7403.19.00 | Brazil |
2006.00.70 | Thailand | 2924.29.43 | India | 8112.19.00 | Kazakhstan |
2008.11.25 | Argentina | 2926.10.00 | Brazil | 8410.13.00 | Brazil |
2008.99.50 | Thailand | 2930.90.30 | India | 8443.11.10 | Thailand |
2516.20.20 | India | 2931.32.00 | India | 8450.20.00 | Thailand |
2827.39.25 | India | 2931.34.00 | India | 9205.90.14 | India |
2827.39.45 | India | 2932.99.08 | India | 9614.00.26 | Egypt |
2828.10.00 | India | 2933.19.35 | India | 9620.00.15 | Thailand |
2831.90.00 | India | 2933.99.06 | India | ||
2833.29.40 | Turkey | 2933.99.85 | India |