PHL must ‘restart’ talks with Washington on Gsp–envoy

THE Philippines has to “restart” its talks with the United States for the reauthorization of the US Generalized System of Preferences (GSP), a mechanism that provides for duty-free exportation of select goods from the Philippines.

According to Philippine Ambassador to the US Jose Manuel Romualdez, the reauthorization of the GSP has been delayed due to several issues, including the election of a new US Congress as well as America’s “concentration” on a wider trade relation with the Asean bloc.

“The US is concentrating a lot of their efforts to have more economic activity with Asean Region that’s why we are trying to push ahead with the GSP despite the Indo-pacific Economic Framework which is now being negotiated at this time,” he said.

A unilateral preferential trade arrangement by the US with 122 beneficiary developing countries and least developed beneficiary countries, the GSP aims to promote economic growth, development, and trade by providing duty-free market access to about 5,000 products in the US. It expired in December 2020. “The Gsp... has to go through the US Congress. We know the delays are mostly, I guess, with US Congress because of the new speakership issue, a new majority in the House. So we have to restart our talks with them,” Romualdez said.

The 118th Congress of the US convened in January 2023. Earlier last month, the US Congress faced a speakership debacle that left lawmakers incapable of passing legislation.

The GSP requires the approval of the US Congress to be reauthorized.

“Our trade attaché is working on pushing GSP,” Romualdez said. “We are working with trade attaché in Washington and other Asean members like Thailand and Vietnam for the renewal of GSP.”

Last year, during President Marcos’s six-day visit to the US, Department of Trade and Industry Secretary Alfredo Pascual highlighted the importance of the GSP to the Philippines, as he sought US Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo’s support for the reauthorization of the trade deal.

Pascual has said that the Philippines had “high utilization rates of the GSP,” demonstrating a growing awareness and demand for Gsp-listed export goods from the Philippines.

The trade deal ushers in tangible benefits such as job creation and skills development for the workers in the Philippines.

In 2021, the US ranked as the Philippines’s third-largest trading partner, the top export market destination, and the fifth-largest import supplier.