Generalized System of Preferences

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Generalized System of Preferences" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (June 2017) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

The Generalized System of Preferences, or GSP, is a preferential

GSP provides tariff reduction for least developed countries but MFN is only for not discriminating among WTO members.

History

This section does not cite any sources. Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (September 2013) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

The idea of tariff preferences for developing countries was the subject of considerable discussion within the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) in the 1960s. Among other concerns, developing countries claimed that MFN was creating a disincentive for richer countries to reduce and eliminate tariffs and other trade restrictions with enough speed to benefit developing countries.

In 1971, the

From the perspective of developing countries as a group, GSP programs have been a mixed success. On one hand, most rich countries have complied with the obligation to generalize their programs by offering benefits to a large swath of beneficiaries, generally including nearly every non-OECD member state. Certainly, every GSP program imposes some restrictions. The United States, for instance, has excluded countries from GSP coverage for reasons such as being communist (Vietnam), being placed on the U.S. State Department's list of countries that support terrorism (Libya), and failing to respect U.S. intellectual property laws.^[1]

Criticism has been leveled noting that most GSP programs are not completely generalized with respect to products, and this is by design. That is, they don't cover products of greatest export interest to low-income developing countries lacking natural resources. In the United States and many other rich countries, domestic producers of "simple" manufactured goods, such as textiles, leather goods, ceramics, glass and steel, have long claimed that they could not compete with large quantities of imports. Thus, such products have been categorically excluded from GSP coverage under the U.S. and many other GSP programs. Critics assert that these excluded products are precisely the kinds of manufactures that most developing countries are able to export, the argument being that developing countries may not be able to efficiently produce things like locomotives or telecommunications satellites, but they can make shirts.

Supporters note that even in the face of its limitations, it would not be accurate to conclude that GSP has failed to benefit developing countries, though some concede GSP has benefited developing countries unevenly. Some assert that, for most of its history, GSP has benefited "richer developing" countries - in early years Mexico,

See also

• Global System of Trade Preferences among Developing Countries (GSTP)

References

External links

• "UNCTAD Introduction to Generalized System of Preferences". Information from UNCTAD about GSP programs in general.
• "UNCTAD Database on Generalized System of Trade Preferences Utilization". Information from UNCTAD on trends and utilization rates across reporting countries.
• "U.S." Archived from the original on 2005-04-14. Introduction to the U.S. GSP program by the U.S. Trade Representative.
• "Generalised Scheme of Preferences". Information from the European Commission on the EU GSP arrangements.
• "Japan Generalized System of Preferences". Introduction to Japan's GSP program by the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs.