Office of the United States Trade Representative November 1, 2011 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

In September 2010, the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) accepted petitions in connection with the 2010 GSP Annual Review to modify the GSP status of certain GSP beneficiary developing countries because of country practices. In November 2010, USTR accepted petitions requesting waivers of GSP competitive need limitations (CNLs). On January 1, 2011, authorization of the GSP program lapsed. Following the recent reauthorization of the GSP program, the GSP Subcommittee of the Trade Policy Staff Committee (TPSC) announces that it has accepted for review a country practices petition submitted for the 2010 GSP Annual Review regarding the Republic of Georgia. This notice sets forth the schedule for submitting comments and conducting the public hearing on the newly accepted petition, requesting to participate in the hearing, and submitting pre- hearing and post-hearing briefs. The deadline for submitting pre- hearing comments and requesting participation in the hearing is 5 p.m., January 10, 2012. The petition can be found in docket USTR-2010-0017 at https://www.regulations.gov. This notice also announces that in view of the lapse in authorization of the GSP program through much of 2011, there will be no actions taken in 2011 with respect to CNLs, including no CNL-related removals of products from GSP eligibility and no redesignations of products currently subject to CNLs. Petitions previously accepted that requested waivers of CNL-related exclusions based on 2010 trade data are hereby dismissed.