On May 16, 2019, the President announced that he would be terminating Turkey’s status as a  beneficiary of specialized treatment pursuant to the U.S. Generalized System of Preferences program (GSP).

At the direction of President Trump, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) announced in March its intent to withdraw the beneficiary status from India and Turkey under the GSP. To see our full post on the issue, click here. There still has been no update from the White House on India’s status as a GSP beneficiary country.

Hours after the announcement that Turkey would no longer be a beneficiary of GSP status, the President announced that the U.S. would be reducing its previously imposed tariffs on Turkish steel from 50% to 25%. The announcement indicated that this decision was made after a reduction in steel imports from Turkey over the past year.  The Department of Commerce cites as a basis for this reduction that the 232 steel tariffs have resulted in the decline in imports of steel articles from Turkey by “48 percent in 2018.”

We will continue to monitor this situation closely and will report additional developments as more information becomes available.