Export Competitiveness of Developing Countries and US Trade Policy

This paper examines the impact of the revocation of tariff exemptions on exports of developing countries using data from cases of the Competitive Needs Limits (CNL), a feature of the US Generalized System of Preferences (GSP). Competitive Needs Limits are arguably imposed on super competitive' GSP beneficiaries who no longer need the preferential treatment, and aim to reserve the GSP benefits for other GSP eligible countries. The findings suggest that being excluded from the GSP as a result of a CNL induces a large and significant drop in US imports from affected countries, both in value and as a share of total US imports, and much of their market share is captured by non-GSP countries, contrary to the policy objectives of CNLs.