Thai and Indian exporters of platinum jewellery face paying higher import duty when bringing goods to the US market following the abolition of preferential duty benefits.

Despite lobbying from both countries, George Bush announced that the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) is to be abolished on June 28th.

Once in force, the scrapping of the programme will mean that Asian exporters will be liable to pay 5.5 per cent import duty.

The reasoning behind the move was that as the two countries had surpassed the quota set by the system, they had therefore reached a stage of competitiveness which does not merit preferential treatment.

Kriang Srilaveevilas, president of Bangkok-based Thai Silp Jewelry, told Jewelry Net Asia: "We've enjoyed GSP for 15 to 20 years and this is the first time it got cancelled. It will definitely hurt for a while but importers from the US have no choice but to accept it.

"This 5.5 per cent import duty is the same rate they pay when they buy from China and Hong Kong."

Sources:

US. axes trade benefits for Brazil, India, others, 03/07/07
http://in.today.reuters.com/News/newsArticle.aspx?type=businessNews&storyID=2007-06-29T051932Z_01_NOOTR_RTRMDNC_0_India-282336-2.xml

US ends tariff breaks for Thai and Indian gold jewellery exports, 03/07/07 http://www.jewellerynetasia.com/industry/newsdetails.aspx?vortalid=1&langid=0&newsidinvortal=6825

Ÿ Adfero Ltd