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The office of U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) Susan Schwab said Aug. 7 it will review trade benefits covered by the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) for 13 countries before the program expires Dec. 31. Although "graduating" from the GSP, as the trade office terms it, is a mark of a country's development, some trade partners see the possible removal of privileges as a political tactic.
The GSP program was inaugurated in 1974 to create economic opportunities for 133 developing countries, and in 2005 the United States imported $26.7 billion worth of goods from them. Schwab indicates that the 13 countries in the current review -- Argentina, Brazil, Croatia, India, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, the Philippines, Romania, Russia, South Africa, Thailand, Turkey and Venezuela -- must move from "unilateral preferences to full economic partnership," meaning they will move toward free trade. This is basically saying the countries in question are too rich to be given preferential treatment.
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