AmCham says GSP withdrawal not country specific; pledges support to members

Monday, 8 January 2018 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

The American Chamber of Commerce Sri Lanka has issued a statement saying the US withdrawal of GSP scheme wasn’t country specific and has pledged to support its members fo achieve success in the biggest market for Lankan exports.

Following is the full statement of AMCHAM Sri Lanka

With effect from 1 January 2018, the United States’ Generalised System of Preferences (GSP) program was discontinued for 120 countries across the world. Sri Lanka is one of them.

This decision while not being country-specific, is one stemming from the US Congress simply not re-authorising the program before adjourning for the year 2017.

The United States is Sri Lanka’s top export market. In 2016, the US imported $ 2.8 billion worth of Sri Lankan goods. We expect 6.2% of these exports to be impacted by the discontinuation of the GSP program.

While recognising that these particular goods will be affected by the rescinding of the GSP program, AmCham is of the view that the overall impact on country’s total exports will be small.

We do recognise some of our members will be affected by the rescinding of the GSP program; and as such, AmCham pledges its fullest support to its members and will work alongside relevant authorities with regards to this as well as to further improve bilateral trade, investments and relations, and to support the country’s economic development by strengthening the business environment and stimulating foreign direct investments.

The GSP program, like many other US trade preference programs provides opportunities for many of the world’s low-income countries to use trade to grow their economies and alleviate poverty. GSP is the largest and oldest US trade preference program and was established by the Trade Act of 1974. GSP promotes economic development by eliminating duties on thousands of products when imported from one of 120 designated beneficiary countries and territories.