US Trade: GSP program expired on Dec. 31
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Moving to U.S. trade. A unilateral American trade deal that granted foreign goods tariff-free access to the US market has expired. More than 35 hundred products from 120 developing countries and territories were covered by the deal known as the Generalized System of Preferences. Products worth 19 billion dollars were imported into the US tariff-free under the GSP in 2016. Backers of the program that ended Sunday say it benefited American businesses by providing low-cost products. But critics argued that the participating foreign nations had abused the system for too long.