Overall, the value of GSP imports increased by 9 percent and the value of GSP tariff savings increased by 14 percent compared to June 2015. Some states, such as Florida and Kansas, saw much larger increases in GSP imports and savings compared to June 2015, as shown in the graphic below.

In Florida, GSP imports and savings both increased by about 50 percent compared to one year earlier. Ferroalloys from Georgia, jewelry from Bolivia, and plywood from Ecuador all contributed to Florida’s GSP increases.

In Kansas, GSP imports increased by 28 percent and savings from GSP by 53 percent compared to one year earlier. Pesticides from India, ceramic sanitary fixtures (sinks, tubs, toilets, etc.) from Thailand, and building stone from Brazil contributed most to Kansas’ GSP increases.

Imports from the Ukraine nearly doubled, led by increased imports of rare gases by companies in South Carolina. GSP eliminated about $560,000 in import taxes on truck tires in June, with more than $200,000 saved on imports into New Jersey alone.

If your company imports under GSP, be sure to answer our GSP renewal impacts survey here.

• They are headquartered in 42 states (plus DC) and 221 congressional districts and you can download the list by supporter list by congressional district here.
• They range from sole proprietors to some of the largest corporations in the world, but about 78% are small businesses with 100 or less employees, and the median number of employees is just 15.
• GSP savings range from as little as $1,000 to millions of dollars per year.
• They import from more than a quarter of GSP-eligible countries, including: Bangladesh, Bhutan, Bolivia, Brazil, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Ecuador, Egypt, Georgia, Ghana, Haiti, India, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Lebanon, Macedonia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Nepal, Pakistan, Paraguay, Philippines, Russia, Senegal, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Thailand, Tunisia, Turkey, Ukraine, and Uruguay.

For those comparing to our last update, we’ve added 2 states (New Hampshire and Vermont), a number of new CDs, enough very small businesses to drop the median employees from 17 to 15,  and one new GSP-eligible country (Ukraine).

If you’re not yet on the list, be sure to add your name here.

The GSP’s importance to its beneficiary countries cannot be underestimated. The import program benefits more than 3.8 billion people living in two-thirds of the world’s economies. They rely on GSP duty-free exports to the United States to create tangible economic development.

The letter also noted that when GSP was allowed to expire for 10 months back in 2011:

U.S. imports of GSP-eligible items during that period decreased by over 17 percent, while overall U.S. imports increased by 15 percent.

We’re in the process of collecting company/association signatures for a similar U.S. business letter.  If you’d like your organization to be on that letter, just add your name (if you haven’t already) to our GSP Supporter List.  But act quick, as our letter will be going out VERY soon!

There were approximately 10,600 country-product combinations imported under GSP in 2012, from Afghani fruits to Zimbabwean wood products and everything in between. As shown by the graph below, for the majority of these country-product combos, the imports come in under GSP or not at all.
For country-product combos worth $2.7 billion in 2012, not a single penny was imported outside of the GSP program!  That accounts for about 43 percent of all country-product combos and is an amazing statistic considering that importers and their customs brokers 1) need to know about the GSP program; 2) specifically claim benefits; 3) meet certain in-country value-added thresholds, and 4) maintain extra  documentation on GSP imports.

Many of these “100 percenters” are raw materials and industrial goods used by American manufacturers, such as ferrosilicon from Russia and Georgia and ceramic laboratory materials from Brazil.

For another $4.4 billion worth of GSP imports in 2012, at least 99 percent of U.S. imports of those products from GSP-eligible countries came in under the program, including tires from Indonesia, aluminum alloy sheets from South Africa, and metal flanges from India.

Even the value of imports on the low end of the spectrum is deceptively high: $628 million of the $852 million worth of imports in the “less than 25 percent” category come from two oil products from Angola – which overwhelmingly receive duty-free access under AGOA.

In the first two months of 2011, American companies imported $185 million worth of ferrochromium, ferrosilicon, ferrosilicon manganese, and other alloys.  Imports were up $72.8 million from the same period in 2010, despite a decline in GSP shipments from South Africa, the top supplier country.  Other countries picked up the slack – and then some:  imports from Georgia increased by $38 million and those from Russia by $23 million.  Imports from Kazakhstan, India, Turkey, Albania, and Brazil all increased by $3-10 million.

Of course, when GSP is expired, rising import values aren’t necessarily a good thing:  steel producers paid more than $5.2 million in new tariffs in just two months.

If that wasn’t bad enough, considering that nearly 2 more months have passed, the actual cost could be approaching $10 million.

Unfortunately, we don’t have any ferroalloy importers in our GSP importer database, so we can’t say who exactly is paying these new costs.  If you’re stuck paying higher prices and want to drop us a line, we’ll be happy to update the post.