DTI Secretary Ramon Lopez
MANILA – The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) hopes the United States will renew the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) grant to the country after it expired at the end-2020.
“We expect that to be renewed… All countries with GSP are expecting a renewal of the GSP,” DTI Secretary Ramon Lopez said in a Viber message to reporters over the weekend.
Lopez added they hope that the next GSP grant would be for another three years or more.
He said the country will continue pushing for the inclusion of the footwear sector when the GSP grant will be renewed.
The GSP is an important special trade preference program of the US to beneficiary countries as this eliminates duties on thousands of products entering the US market.
This also helps beneficiary countries to increase and diversify trade with the US.
Seventy percent of Philippine exports to the US were eligible for GSP.
Data from the Philippine Statistics Authority show that the US is the top export destination for Philippine products in 2020.
About 15.2 percent or USD9.71 billion of the country’s exports last year went to the US.
However, due to impacts of the pandemic, Philippine exports to US declined by 16.1 percent in 2020 compared to revenues in 2019 at USD11.57 billion. (PNA)
