ANNOUNCEMENT 06 Oct 2014
In October 2014, the government of the United States of America announced a change in import duties.NUMBER OF INTERVENTIONS
1
In October 2014, the Obama adminstration removed Russia's GSP-status and thus imposed tariff increases on Russian exporters.
In a Federal Register notice signed on October 3 and published on October 6, 2014, President Obama removed Russia from the list of beneficiary developing countries of the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) as of October 3, 2014. The stated reason for this action was a presidential determination that "that Russia is sufficiently advanced in economic development and improved in trade competitiveness that it is appropriate to terminate the designation of Russia as a beneficiary developing country"; one may speculate that other issues in the U.S.-Russian relationship were also taken in consideration. As a consequence of this determination, products imported from Russia that had received duty-free treatment under the GSP will now be subject to MFN duties. (See the "tariff line affected" box for the principal items imported from Russia into the United States that now move from duty-free to dutiable treatment.) It should be noted that at the time of the decision the overall GSP program was still in suspension, and will remain so unless and until Congress acts to renew the authorizing legislation for the program.