The Unites States Congress decided not to re-authorize the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) programme, which is set to expire on 31 December 2017.
Close to 27.5 percent of Sri Lanka’s exports go to the US market.
The last time Sri Lanka had the US GSP renewed was on 29 June 2015, by former US President Barack Obama, almost two years after it had expired. According to the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS), “There have been many renewals (six so far since year 2000)” but this would be the ninth time in a period of 32 years that the scheme expired without being renewed.
The United States Embassy in a media release explained today that Sri Lanka and other GSP beneficiary countries and territories “would be subject to non-preferential duties’, beginning January 1, 2018.
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