We continue to receive responses to our survey on the impacts of GSP expiration after 1 year. To be blunt, they are not pretty. Here are a couple responses we heard this morning:
- One small business in Illinois laid off a worker yesterday. They have also delayed two hires, so instead of 12 employees they are operating with just 9.
- Another small business in New York laid off 10 workers and has also delayed two hires (and a variety of capital investments). So instead of 27 employees, the have just 15.
- Last but certainly not least, there is Golden Valley, Minnesota-based Vispak, which imports engineered plastic packaging material used in the food industry. According to owner Terry Wright: “We are currently in the process of shutting down the business due to this GSP tax making us non-competitive. We have a dozen independent contractors working with this product who will have to find replacement work.“
All three of these companies sell to American manufacturers, meaning the higher costs associated with GSP expiration are harming others as well. As one of them noted: “I have marked my price up so the ball rolls down hill so everything they make is marked up and so on.”
You can see how GSP expiration is impacting other companies here, here, here, here, or here. If you have not done so already, please take a minute to answer the survey by next Friday, August 29. As always, all data will be kept confidential and no company-specific answers will be attributed without explicit permission.
