GSP provides clear benefits to American families by eliminating taxes on a variety of food products and home goods. In 2012, GSP eliminated nearly $280 million in import taxes on those products alone.
But instead of talking about how GSP reduces prices for the American families in the abstract, we thought we’d show you some ways the Coalition’s own Dan Anthony uses GSP products every day. For example, here’s a picture of his dinner from last night:
Like almost every night, the meal was served on GSP-eligible dinnerware from Indonesia. The plate and bowl are part of a set for which GSP eliminates import taxes of 8 percent! And it’s not just the plates: the wine is from South Africa and also eligible for duty-free treatment because of GSP.
At meal time, our four-legged family members may also benefit from GSP. Every night before eating, Duchess takes a moment to appreciate the fact that GSP eliminated the 2 percent tariff on her stainless steel dog bowl from India:
“Thanks Congress! I can almost taste the GSP savings!” – Duchess
While they actually live far away, we keep our family members close in these wooden picture frames from Thailand, whose import taxes are reduced by 3.9 percent because of GSP:
These are just some of the items we could identify quickly. Counter tops, bathroom sinks and toilets, wooden doors – all of these products found in the home are top imports under GSP. Unfortunately, no “Made in…” labels were present, so Dan couldn’t confirm any of those items.
Of course, GSP is not the reason these items were purchased (and Dan’s background clearly is not photography). But that’s one beauty of the GSP program for American families: they benefit from lower costs resulting from GSP even if they’ve never heard of it!
American families can use those GSP savings to buy other things, go out to dinner (like Dan and his wife may do tonight), or otherwise raise their standard of living, as highlighted in the new “Imports Work for America” report. All they need is for Congress to renew GSP before July 31 so those savings will continue.
This post is part of the 2013 Imports Work for America Week initiative, an effort by a number of organizations and individuals in the trade policy community to talk about the benefits of imports for the U.S. economy. You can see our previous post here or visit the Imports Work website here.
