It’s been three full months since Congress let GSP expire. In that time, American companies likely have paid over $200 million in extra tariffs – it was at least $70 million in January alone. Last week we highlighted how GSP expiration reduces American jobs, makes pay/benefits at existing jobs worse, makes China more competitive, and raises costs for American manufacturers (even for products not available in the United States). The examples from last week are hardly unique. Below are new comments received over the last few days about impacts of GSP expiration.

Burris Company, a manufacturer in Greeley, Colorado, has paid nearly $400,000 in tariffs due to GSP expiration. Vice President of Finance Mike Kinnison reports: “Burris Company manufactures as well as imports. The lower cost of imports helps to sustain our manufacturing and keep overall costs low. Additional tariffs puts US manufacturing at risk. Much more delay will result in canceling any large capital investments and lead to layoffs.”

Franklin Mfg Inc. in Jericho, New York has paid about $25,000 in tariffs due to GSP expiration. It raised prices to reflect tariffs, which led to lost sales and lower planned purchases going forward. As Franklin Mfg President and Owner Jesse Taube reports: “We are in a vulnerable position to lose our current customers due to not being as competitive.”

Fusion Gourmet, a food importer in Rancho Dominguez, California that has paid $25,000 in tariffs, similarly raised prices and lost sales. According to Fusion Gourmet President Steve Liaw, job impacts are felt by workers in both the United States and Indonesia, it’s primary GSP source country.

  • In the United States: “Due to increased costs related to GSP, we are not able to increase our hiring for 2021. These additional costs directly impact our budget that we allocate towards seasonal hiring.”
  • In Indonesia: “We will also reduce our orders from factories that are in countries impacted by GSP. This lost revenue will negatively impact these factories which are usually 70+% women workers.”

A Simpler Time, which is based in Morrisville, North Carolina and also operates a retail store in New Orleans, Louisiana, reports how GSP expiration directly hurt wages for its American workers. According to A Simpler Time President Jeff King: “Normally [we] pay quarterly bonuses to employees, but have delayed them as we can’t pass all the increased costs on to customers.” It also didn’t replace a worker that left and reduced another’s hours due to a combination of higher import costs, supply chain issues, and retail sales that remain well below pre-Covid levels.

If you’re a company impacted by GSP expiration, please answer our very short survey on GSP expiration impacts to date (the source for all of the above examples). To further help the Coalition for GSP educate policymakers on who is hurt by expiration (and how), companies are strongly encouraged to: