While the Senators continue to talk, more American companies continue to join our efforts.  Since debate started on Monday, 5 new companies with 361 employees have added their names to the GSP Supporter List.  (You can add your company by emailing here.)

The new companies include Amran Inc. in Sugar Land, Texas; Cordova Safety Products in Memphis, Tennessee; Golden Country Oriental Food in Chicago, Illinois; Miami Chemical in Miami, Florida, and TSI Accessory Group in St. Louis, Missouri. 

These companies alone have paid hundreds of thousands of dollars in tariffs on imports from Argentina, Colombia, India, Indonesia, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, and Thailand because of GSP expiration.

They bring the number of companies on the Supporter List to 300, which also includes another 21 national and regional associations.

Let’s hope the Senators stop talking and instead start listening to their constituent and renew GSP today.

Remember, companies can add their name to our GSP Supporter List by emailing here.  We need name and location, but more info, like that included below, is always appreciated.

There are a couple themes that tend to run through the emails we get.  The companies are small, scared, and praying for help from someone/anyone.  Many have tried contacting their reps, but the question remains: are their reps listening???

Anyways, to the emails:

• A company in Las Vegas, Nevada says: “We are a small importer of frozen foods (edamame, vegetable mixes) from Thailand and Indonesia.  We are currently losing money on all products imported and have been experiencing this since Jan 1st. We were initially told we would get this back, but it now mid March. We will be forced out of business if this continues. I have notified my representative in Congress, but nothing is happening.  Help.”
  
  
• A company in Bohemia, New York says:  “This is affecting us tremendously, as we import metal home accessories from India. We cannot increase our pricing in the middle of a season, however, so we are spending at least $1000 extra on every single container we import. As a small company, this is affecting us in a huge way. We are praying that the GSP will be passed.”

• Finally, a company in Hyde Park, Massachusetts says:  “Our business is importing food products in bulk and repacking them in the USA. Without GSP we are no longer competitive with our products from Turkey and Argentina. We add value by using US workers to repack with US manufactured packaging materials. We can’t compete without GSP and we will have to walk away from the business and let more American jobs go overseas.”
  

How does this affect American companies, or as we like to call them, employers?  Here are excerpts from three different emails I’ve received from readers of this site in the last 24 hours:

• A company in Florida says: “We import chamois leather from Turkey and the duty now being charged significantly impacts our margins, which directly affects our ability to maintain our level of employee benefits and/or hire additional personnel.”
  
• A company in The Woodlands, Texas says:  “We import cooking oils from Argentina. To be out of the GSP leaves our company totally out of the market due to an 18% duty.”
  
• Finally, a company in New Jersey says:  “We have contracts with customers in the USA for material from India: the prices were based on GSP status being renewed. We are consequently paying duties in excess of 15k per month.”

Congress must renew GSP immediately.  At a minimum, it should acknowledge the severe negative impact its expiration has on American companies every single day that they delay passing this important program.

If you’re a company and would like to add your name to our GSP Supporter List, you can do so by emailing here.

Most yeast imports under GSP come from Brazil, which sent about $21 million worth of yeast to the United States under the program in 2010.  More than 98.7% of yeasts from Brazil entered under GSP, waiving tariffs ranging from 3.2% to 6.4% and saving importers nearly $1 million.

One such company is Alltech, a worldwide leader in animal nutrition, health and performance that researches yeast and natural enzyme technologies. The company has a large footprint in Kentucky, including global headquarters in Nicholasville, a plant in Springfield, and as of just two weeks ago, a new $200 million production facility in Winchester.  If that weren’t enough, Alltech even has its own golf course and brewery!  Outside of Kentucky, Alltech has operations in New Mexico, South Dakota, and Wisconsin.

AFB International, based in St. Charles, Missouri, has also imported GSP-eligible yeasts and organisms from Brazil.  AFB, whose primary manufacturing facility is located in nearby O’Fallon, Missouri, specializes in “pet food palatability technology.” In other words, they make pet foods and snacks taste better for the animals. It also means their website is full of pictures of cute dogs and cats.

It should come as no surprise that companies like these would take advantage of the GSP program – both Alltech and AFB operate globally.  In addition to American manufacturing cites referenced above,  Alltech has two production facilities in Brazil, while AFB has state-of-the-art production facilities in Brazil and Argentina.

This worldwide presence helps companies like Alltech and AFB remain competitive – and allows them to expand and create goods jobs in place like Kentucky and Missouri.  Yet when Congress allowed GSP to expire, it hurt American companies by cutting them off from their natural suppliers….themselves.  Congress needs to pass a long-term GSP renewal to ensure the American operations of these global companies continue to thrive.

Gelatin is used by pharmaceutical companies to make both hard shells and soft capsules for medicine, by producers of photographic film, and in a variety of adhesives.  As a result, the importers of gelatin are quite diverse as well.

Rousselot, with headquarters near Milwaukee, Wisconsin and a production facility in Iowa, imports gelatin from Argentina.  LD Davis’ adhesive production facility in North Carolina (the company is based in Pennsylvania) has imported gelatin from Brazil, just like Catalent Pharma Solutions in Florida.  Meanwhile, Fujifilm South Carolina, which employs more than 900 people in Greenwood, imports gelatin from India.

Since we don’t eat JELL-O every day, we probably don’t think about all the other ways gelatin affects our life.  Similarly, while many people will never think about GSP, it doesn’t mean they’re not paying the costs of its expiration.

Excluding myself, I don’t know of anyone who thinks of GSP when Valentine’s Day rolls around, but perhaps they should.  More than $150 million worth of “sugar confections” (including white chocolates) and chocolate products entered the United States duty free in 2010, saving more than $8.5 million.

Some of the top sources for GSP candies in 2010 include Argentina, Brazil, Thailand, Turkey, and Colombia.  Pennsylvania-based Hershey’s, which makes Kisses, Reese’s, Twizzlers, and Almond Joys – imports confections and chocolates from Brazil.  So does Nestle, based in California and the maker of famous products like Crunch, and Butterfinger.  Haribo, based in Maryland, imports GSP-eligible products from Turkey.

While Valentine’s Day will come and go without Congressional action to renew GSP, we hold out hope that Congress will act before our we go on our next big candy-buying spree for Easter.

As noted in this recent article in the Washington Post, South America holds some of the worlds largest reserves of lithium carbonates.  Argentina alone supplied nearly 80 percent of all US imports of lithium carbonates  in the first 11 months of 2010.

What does this have to do with GSP?  Every penny’s worth of the lithium carbonates imported from Argentina through November 2010 entered duty-free under GSP.  More than $117 million worth of lithium carbonates have come in duty free under GSP since 2007, saving domestic manufacturers like FMC Lithium in Bessemer City, NC more than $4.3 million.

GSP helps American companies compete against producers of finished lithium batteries in Japan and China, the two leading foreign suppliers in 2010.  Allowing GSP to expire raises the costs for domestic manufacturers at a time when companies are desperately trying to decrease the costs for these new technologies.

GSP’s impact on developing countries is often cited as a reason to extend the program, but imports of lithium carbonates show that trade preferences like GSP are equally important for American manufacturers to compete in the global economy.