The US Generalized System of Preferences

The United States Generalized System of Preferences (“GSP”) was officially notified to the World Trade Organization (WTO) on January 1, 1976. It currently benefits 119 countries and territories. It comprises 3,154 tariff lines, which are totally exempt from the import duty. These are mostly manufactured and semi-manufactured products (2,647 lines), along with some agricultural products (507 lines).

More details on the functioning of the program can be found in the Handbook prepared by UNCTAD or on the WTO database on Preferential Trade Arrangements. The Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) also offers a regularly updated Guidebook and an informal compilation of beneficiary countries and products.

The official reference source is the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States (HTSUS), which lists products eligible for the U.S. preferential scheme, identified by the "A" or "A*" symbols next to the "Free" tariff in the "Special" column. The "A" symbol indicates that all beneficiary countries have the corresponding exemption. The symbol "A*" indicates that there are exceptions for certain countries, which should be consulted in the "General Notes" section of the North American nomenclature.

To benefit from the exemption, the importer of the Brazilian product in the United States must fill out the "U.S. Customs and Border Protection" (CBP) form, registering the prefix "A" before the tariff line, in order to indicate the request for the benefit granted by the GSP. The product must also comply with the stipulated rules of origin.

Annual Review

Every year, the USTR conducts a program review process, when there is an opportunity for petitions to be submitted for changes to the scheme. These petitions have specific purposes, such as:

- Inclusion and exclusion of products;

- Eligibility of countries (assessment of eligibility of GSP beneficiaries with respect to the program's eligibility criteria);

- Request for a waiver of Competitive Need Limitations – CNL (maintaining the benefit for very competitive products that represent a significant volume of US imports).

For interested companies, it is necessary to carefully monitor the publication of the notice about each review process, published in the Federal Register in the first months of each year, also highlighted on the USTR website.