Japan ends preferential tariff treatment under the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) for sever

The General Administration of Customs (GACC) of the People’s Republic of China has announced (in Chinese) that goods exported from China to Japan, starting 1 April 2019, will no longer be eligible for preferential tariff treatment under Japan’s Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) scheme. This announcement refers to a decision made by the Japanese Ministry of Finance and announced by the Japanese Embassy in China.

The statement is in line with a list of countries whose GSP preferential tariff treatment has ended, which is published on the Japan Customs (in Japanese) website. According to the list, on 1 April 2019 preferential tariff treatment under the GSP is also scheduled to be discontinued with regard to Thailand, Brazil, Malaysia and Mexico.

More information on the GSP - a system designed to help developing countries - and on its assessment criteria for a country’s development, as applied in Japan, can be found on the websites of Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (in English and Japanese) and Japan Customs (in Japanese and English), respectively.