While NAFTA renegotiations and adjacent bilateral trade disputes have dominated the current discourse on trade policy, the future of the less-discussed Generalized System of Preferences looks as though it will provide both an important and comprehensive look into government’s trade priorities. Congress must now decide whether it will act to preserve these tariff reductions, which have long contributed to American prosperity.

The GSP program was first established by the Trade Act of 1974 and has systematically cut tariffs on thousands of products imported from designated beneficiary countries and territories. The countries that enjoy freer trade because of the GSP program represent diverse regions of the world, as well as developing economies whose imports have enriched both American companies and consumers. These developing countries participate in the GSP program because the status offers lower duties than what those countries would otherwise pay under the most-favored-nation status observed by the World Trade Organization.