On December 15, 2013 I posted an article, GSP Reinstatement. Help or Hurt the Chemical Industry?? which reiterated the need for businesses to press Congress to reinstate the General System of Preferences (GSP) and offered ways that companies could make their voices heard. In short, by allowing the GSP to expire, Congress is forcing all importers, small and large to have customs duty preferences revoked without notice or recourse – thus creating unanticipated increase in duties paid, a direct (and completely uncalled for) negative impact to their bottom line.  In a recent post by The Coalition for GSP titled GSP in 2013: Companies Should’ve Saved…Could’ve Hired?, Jeff Wright (Exec VP and CFO of TRInternational, Inc) points out the actual unanticipated loss for his company…the result of which causes our company not to be able to hire 1 or 2 people to spur its growth. Here is the excerpt:

TRInternational, Inc. (TRI), a global wholesaler of industrial chemicals, headquartered in Seattle, is just one of the companies forced to pay higher tariffs because of Congressional inaction. In the 20 years TRI has been in business, it has made the Puget Sound Business Journal’s “Top 100 Fastest Growing Private Businesses in Washington State” list on three separate occasions. Yet the absence of GSP has cost the company more than $50,000 in higher customs duties (as of this writing the amount now approaches $70,000)

As noted by Jeff Wright: “On an annual basis, that’s 1 and 2 new hires that TRI could be employing to help our growing company and the Puget Sound region.”

Surely this is Congressional inaction that must be rectified immediately.   Job Creation.  Stunted.  Seems like a no brainer to me.  Do you agree?   What is the counter argument?

If you feel as strong as I do, and we do at TRInternational, Inc (TRI) please act to support the immediate retroactive renewal of the U.S. General System of Preferences.