The national government held a "Seminar on the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP)" aimed at providing technical tools to Argentine exporters so that they can efficiently take advantage of the tariff exemptions granted by the system.
The event, organized by the Argentine Foreign Ministry, was attended by representatives of the private sector, who after the presentations participated in a dialogue with USTR officials.
Secretary Reyser highlighted the Foreign Ministry's team's full willingness to work with the private sector to ensure that access to the GSP stimulates exports, benefiting regional economies and generating new jobs.
Argentina rejoined the GSP in December 2017, after five years of suspension. The GSP covers about 3500 tariff items, including products from regional economies such as wines, confectionery items without cocoa, canned meat, olive oil, cheeses and strawberries, which can enter the US without paying tariffs.
In the period January-August 2018, Argentine exports to the US exceeded US$ 3 billion, of which Nearly US$ 200 million entered with zero tariff thanks to the GSPIt is estimated that this amount could be much higher and for this reason the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Production and the Secretariat of Agroindustry are working to disseminate and strengthen the use of the GSP, both through the more correct use of the tool and by seeking to expand the Argentine exportable offer under the GSP.
General System of Preferences?
The GSP is a set of tariff preferences granted by certain developed countries to developing countries. These tariff preferences consist of reductions or elimination of the tariff that the developed country applies to the import of a good. This special tariff treatment is granted unilaterally to selected developing countries.
The GSP constitutes as such an exception to the Most Favored Nation principle.a, on which the international trading system is based. According to this principle, adopted by the WTO, any tariff preference that a member State grants to another must automatically be applied to all other members of the organization. However, the GSP constitutes benefits that are granted only to developing countries.
The idea of instituting a system of preferences for less advanced countries arose from a proposal by Raúl Prebisch in 1964 and was adopted in 1968.
There are currently 12 States implementing GSP schemes (including the European Union): Australia, Belarus, Canada, Iceland, Japan, Kazakhstan, New Zealand, Norway, the Russian Federation, Switzerland, Turkey and the United States.
Requirements for the benefit
The requirements for a product exported to the US to benefit from the elimination of
GSP tariffs are:
1) The product must be included in the list of eligible products for the GSP (which is included in the Harmonized Tariff System of the USA)
2) The product must be imported directly from a Developing Country
3) The developing country must be eligible under the GSP
4) The good in question must be produced in the Developing Country and must meet value-added requirements
5) The exporter or importer must request the GSP tariff treatment by placing the GSP Special Programme Indicator (A, A* or A+) before the U.S. tariff item number on export documents
Information
GSP Guide for Exportspains (available on the Argentina Trade Net portal)
Information about the SGP (available on the website of the Office of the United States Trade Representative
List of Argentine products beneficiaries of the United States GSP
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