U.S. Customs and Border Protection April 20, 2018 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) is a renewable preferential trade program that allows the eligible products of designated beneficiary developing countries to enter the United States free of duty. The GSP program expired on December 31, 2017, but has been renewed through December 31, 2020, effective April 22, 2018, with retroactive effect between January 1, 2018, through April 21, 2018, by a provision in the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2018. This document provides notice to importers that U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) will again accept claims for GSP duty-free treatment for merchandise entered, or withdrawn from warehouse, for consumption and that CBP will process refunds on duties paid, without interest, on GSP-eligible merchandise that was entered during the period that the GSP program was lapsed. Formal and informal entries that were filed electronically via the Automated Broker Interface (ABI) using Special Program Indicator (SPI) Code ``A'' as a prefix to the tariff number will be automatically processed by CBP and no further action by the filer is required to initiate the refund process. Non-ABI filers, and ABI filers that did not include SPI Code ``A'' on the entry, must timely submit a duty refund request to CBP. CBP will continue conducting verifications to ensure that GSP benefits are available to eligible entries only.