The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) recently announced that the Trump Administration signed a new proclamation removing rice from the list of commodities afforded duty-free access under the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) Program. The action follows a petition made by USA Rice in March requesting the the broad removal of six rice tariff lines from receiving duty-free benefits through the GSP, which is a program originally designed to help developing countries find new markets for trade. The proclamation removes one of the six tariff lines, for parboiled rice imports, from eligibility for all GSP beneficiary countries, primarily impacting Argentina, Brazil, Pakistan, Paraguay, and Thailand. The remaining five tariff lines are still eligible for use by “least developed countries” only, namely Cambodia and Myanmar. The action was praised by the U.S. rice industry and Congressional members from rice producing states who also made the request to remove rice from the GSP program..
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