US maintains GSP for seven items of Thai products

BANGKOK, July 4 (TNA) - The Unites States has maintained its Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) for seven items of Thai products, effective from July 1, 2013. Pranee Siriphand, Director-General of the Thai Ministry of Commerce's Department of Foreign Trade, told journalists on Wednesday that the Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR) has already announced to maintain its GSP for the seven items of Thai exports, including fresh cut orchids, fresh durian, dried papaya, dried tamarind, sweet corn, processed papaya and bone china statuettes. Pranee said that the USTR has granted the continued duty-free access to the Thai products on the condition that the Thai exported items have a market share of more than 50 per cent, but their total import value in the United States remains below the level specified by the USTR. According to the senior official, the maintained GSP allows the Thai exported items to the US market to be spared from tariff rates of 1.8-6.4 per cent, totally worth 44 million baht, last year. The senior official acknowledged that the USTR did not exclude any Thai product item in its 2012 GSP Annual Product Review, suggesting that Thai business operators and exporters, therefore, maximize their benefits from the GSP privilege to boost the value of Thai exports to the US market to contribute to the Thai economic expansion. (TNA)