GSP saved American companies $102 million in April, an increase of over $18 million (22%) from April 2018 and the third-highest level on record. In the first four months of 2019, GSP saved American companies $385 million. That is $75 million more than the same period in 2018 – itself a record-shattering year.
For the 12 months ending in April, GSP savings ($1.1 billion) were about 50 percent higher than at any point from 2009 to mid-2017. During that period, GSP savings mostly stagnated until Congress started passing long(er) term renewals in mid-2015, as shown below.
Of course, recent decisions to terminate GSP for India and Turkey will break the multi-year streak of increased GSP savings for American companies. Their eligibility was savings companies about $1 million per day in 2019. Paying those costs will have an immediate, negative impacts on GSP importers.
That is why we launched a new survey for companies to report harm from termination. We hope companies importing from India and Turkey will regularly update us on impacts so that we can share that info with Members of Congress and their staffs. It is critical that they understand the damage to constituents from the Administration’s actions.
