US Congress seen to reauthorize GSP scheme in 2024: envoy

US Capitol Building in Washington DC (Pexels Photo)

WASHINGTON DC – The United States Congress is likely to approve the revival of the Generalized Scheme of Preferences (GSP) “possibly before November,” the Philippine Embassy in the US said Wednesday.

Philippine Ambassador to the US Jose Manuel Romualdez said a number of American companies, including those based in the Philippines, have been lobbying along with other nations for the reauthorization of the trade preference program.

“Actually, there is already a move from the US Congress to approve it,” he said in an interview with visiting Filipino reporters.

“I’m not sure whether it has already been presented but I know, we’ve had several meetings with several congressmen and senators, they did say that it was already part and parcel of what the agenda would be like for this Congress,” he added.

He said a number of countries are also asking the US Congress to hasten the reauthorization of the program.

“The GSP will actually benefit even some of the manufacturing companies in the Philippines that are US companies. We were talking about leather goods, for instance, leather items that are being done in the Philippines by American companies,” Romualdez said.

“In fact, it was these American companies and the American Chamber of Commerce in the Philippines that have been asking us to lobby for the renewal of the GSP.”

The GSP is the largest and oldest US trade preference program and provides duty-free access to eligible products not generally produced in the US, when imported from one of 119 designated beneficiary countries.

The US GSP scheme was last reauthorized in 2017 and has not been renewed since it lapsed in 2020.

US Representative Adrian Smith has introduced the GSP Reform Act, which would reauthorize the GSP program until Dec. 31, 2030.

The bill proposes the largest reforms to the GSP program since inception, including setting new country eligibility for participation.

The Philippines has enjoyed preferential duty-free entry to the US through the program for a number of products in the past, with the GSP exports accounting for 18 percent of Philippines exports to the US, valued at an estimated USD1.

59 billion.

Its top GSP exports included telescopic sights for rifles, spectacle lenses other than glass, new pneumatic radial tires of rubber, non-alcoholic beverages not including fruits and vegetables, and electrical machinery and equipment parts.

The last GSP program covered a total 5,057 products or tariff lines or roughly 47.7 percent of the 10,600 total US tariff lines.