As we noted yesterday, GSP expiration cost American companies $62 million in October. California companies paid an estimated $9.1 million, but more than a third of states faced an extra million dollars in import taxes because GSP remained expired.
Taxes paid by companies in both Indiana and Virginia jumped more than 30% from September to October, to $1.2 million and $1.1 million, respectively. More than a quarter of taxes paid by Indiana companies were on imports of ferrosilicon – a raw material used to manufacture steel – from Russia.
Virginia importers of nuts and seeds from Turkey faced tariffs of 17.9%, paying $32,000 in taxes on just $178,000 of imports. Red River Foods in Richmond, which imported multiple shipments of blanched hazelnuts from Turkey in October, is one of the companies likely facing higher prices because of GSP expiration. While the October taxes are bad, Red River Foods has brought in at least 3 more shipments of hazelnuts from Turkey since November (according to Panjiva), so the costs continue to add up.
The other states where companies paid at least a million dollars in GSP taxes in October were (from highest to lowest): New Jersey, Texas, New York, Illinois, Georgia, Florida, North Carolina, Ohio, Maryland, Kentucky, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, South Carolina, and Connecticut.
If Congress adjourns for the year without passing a retroactive renewal, American companies throughout the United States will pay tens of millions of dollars while waiting for Congress to return in early 2014 – and considerably more if GSP renewal is further delayed.
