Trump suspended duty-free trade with Ukraine

Photo: facebook / The White House

US President Donald Trump decided to suspend some preferences in trade with Ukraine that had been in effect since 29 in July 2015 of the year due to weak intellectual property protection in this country, the office of the US Trade Representative reported. He writes about thisVoice of America".

According to the document that Trump signed on December 22, duty-free trade is suspended due to violations of the protection of intellectual property rights in Ukraine. However, this is not the final abolition of trade preferences.

“The US Presidential Administration has decided to partially suspend preferences under GSP for Ukraine, deferring the decision for 120 days. The Office of the US Trade Representative said that the postponement is the result of positive actions by the Government of Ukraine to correct the situation with the opaque system of paying royalties to copyright holders. One of the main complaints of the United States against Ukraine within the framework of “Special Report 301″ has long been the non-transparent activities of organizations for the collective management of property rights in the field of copyright and related rights,” the press service of the Ukrainian Ministry of Economic Development and Trade reported.

“President Trump sent a clear signal that the United States will actively demand that the criteria for obtaining privileged access to the US market be met,” said US Trade Representative Robert Lightheiser.

“The beneficiary countries have to make a choice - either they work with the US trade representative to meet the criteria for obtaining preferences in trade, or they will face law enforcement actions,” he added. “The administration is committed to doing everything so that other countries fulfill their part of the obligations in our trade relations.”

According to the US Trade Representative, the partial suspension of Ukraine’s participation in the Generalized System of Preferences "is caused by its inability to ensure adequate and effective protection of intellectual property rights, despite the support and assistance of the US government for several years."

The sales representative’s statement says that in this case the president decided to issue a notice for 120 days, since “the Ukrainian government has a real way to remedy the situation, including improving the existing legal regime governing the payment of royalties to right-holder organizations.”

On December 20, 2017, the Parliament of Ukraine already adopted the bill “On the effective management of property rights of copyright holders in the field of copyright and (or) related rights.” There are three more draft laws on copyright protection in the Rada.

“We have every reason to believe that the adoption of the bills by parliament will remove a large number of comments from the Office of the US Trade Representative in the context of Special Report 301 and the US Generalized System of Preferences,” said Deputy Minister of Economy of Ukraine Mikhail Titarchuk.

Recall that the US Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) is designed to promote economic growth in developing countries by providing preferential duty-free treatment for the import into the United States of up to 5000 types of goods from countries designated by the American government - 120 beneficiary countries and territories, including including Ukraine. For Ukraine, there was a permit for duty-free import of 3,5 thousand types of products.

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