Industry Groups Urge USTR To Reconsider Travel Goods Eligibility, Call for Meeting With Froman
Four industry groups urged the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative to extend eligibility for 28 travel goods for all Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) beneficiary countries and requested a meeting with U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman after USTR deferred duty benefit decisions on several articles for non-least developed beneficiary developing countries (LDBDCs) (see 1607010008). In a July 5 letter (here), the American Apparel & Footwear Association, the Outdoor Industry Association, the Sports & Fitness Industry Association, and the Travel Goods Association said they were “stunned” that USTR “disregarded” the intent of Congress and stakeholder views expressed at the International Trade Commission and Trade Policy Staff Committee hearings, and in other communications with USTR, “despite virtually unanimous stakeholder and strong bipartisan support for the product expansion.”
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The deferrals will cause confusion and uncertainty among U.S. businesses and GSP beneficiary countries, and could prompt more companies to source from “super-competitive China,” the groups said. Furthermore, production capabilities in LDBDCs are not advanced enough to host all the manufacturing activities needed to make name-brand travel goods, the groups said.
A USTR spokesman said travel goods are "particularly well-suited" to be produced in least developed countries, and that the U.S. government is "committed" to encouraging LDCs and countries in sub-Saharan Africa to utilize GSP benefits and benefits under the African Growth and Opportunity Act, so their industries can more fairly compete with producers in more developed countries. "The President deferred action on a decision for non-least developed countries outside sub-Saharan Africa to provide additional time to assess the impact of yesterday's grant of benefits on the competitiveness of least-developed countries and to further study whether the more advanced developing countries really need one-way tariff preferences to compete," the spokesman said. "We are going to continue to assess these issues, some of which will unfold as the LDCs and AGOA countries begin to use the new benefits."