“We have delayed hiring 4 employees due to the expiration of the GSP. Also, our company was planning on investing in a warehouse expansion – about a $300,000 capital expenditure – that has now been cancelled.”
The above quote came from a California-based importer of specialty foods from Indonesia. On top of $50,000 in tariffs paid, a considerable sum for a company with just 12 employees, it estimates another $500,000 in lost sales because its products are not competitive when facing the higher import taxes.
Retroactive GSP renewal would allow the company to “hire new employees and pursue our warehouse expansion to further support the growth of our business.” Of course, new employees and investments have benefits that ripple throughout the local economy, so the positive impacts of GSP renewal would be felt beyond the importer.
This example comes from a response to our new survey launched last week on the impacts of GSP expiration after one year. We hope to collect many more examples (like this one and this one and this one) so that we can publish the results when Congress returns to DC on September 8.
If you have not done so already, please take a minute to answer these questions by Friday, August 29. As always, all data will be kept confidential and no company-specific answers will be attributed unless you explicitly grant permission.
