A bill has been introduced in the US House of Representatives that seeks to extend ‘the Generalised System of Preferences (GSP)’ programme for next three years. The programme was expired on on the midnight of December 31, 2017. Trump’s ‘America First’ policy cloud was hanging on the fate of GSP.
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- It was introduced by trade subcommittee chairman Dave Reichert, ways and means chairman Kevin Brady and Jackie Walorski and ways and means ranking member Richard Neal and Trade Subcommittee ranking member Bill Pascrell.
- The programme allows few developing countries to export some products duty-free to the United States.
- The bill also seeks to introduce a new reporting requirement that will improve the effectiveness of Congressional oversight of enforcement of the eligibility criteria.
- Since India was the largest beneficiary of this programme and was unsure about the fate of the said programme , this move might bring some relief.
- India was its top beneficiary in 2016, exporting goods worth $4.7 billion to the US under the programme, which was 10% of the total $41.36 bn. export to the United States.
- The Generalised System of Preferences (GSP) is the largest and oldest U.S. trade preference program. It was established by the Trade Act of 1974
