President Trump has issued a Proclamation removing Turkey from the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) program. GSP provides for the duty free importation of a wide range of products from designated beneficiary developing countries.
The Proclamation states that “based on its level of economic development, it is appropriate to terminate Turkey’s designation as a beneficiary developing country effective May 17, 2019.” Additionally, the exemption for Turkey from application of safeguard measures on solar cells and large residential washers is removed.
In a separate announcement, the White House has reduced the Section 232 steel tariffs from 50% to 25% for steel imports from Turkey due to the decline in shipments of steel articles from that country. This takes effect May 21, 2019.