Hearing on GSP Review for Eight Countries in Program, Possible Addition of Laos Set for Jan. 30, 2020

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative scheduled a public hearing for Jan. 30, 2020, on whether Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Ecuador, Georgia, Indonesia, South Africa and Thailand should stay in the Generalized System of Preferences benefits program, and whether Laos should be added to it. Comments on any of these countries must be submitted by the end of Jan. 17. Worker rights are at issue in the four former Soviet Republics. Market access is a concern in Thailand and Indonesia. The International Intellectual Property Alliance is concerned about South Africa and Indonesia. And Chevron Corporation is petitioning that Ecuador be removed because, in its view, Ecuador for years tried to extort billions of dollars from Chevron for environmental pollution decades ago in the Ecuadorian Amazon, despite the Investor-State Dispute Settlement system panel ruling that the court case against Chevron was a fraud.