U.S. proposal on Special Products

Below a link to the U.S. proposal on Special Products (SPs).

http://www.tradeobservatory.org/library.cfm?refid=80730

Please note in particular that it proposes for no more than 5 tariff lines at a detailed duty level (this would mean either at the HS-6 or 8 digit level) to be designated as special products (for developing countries only).

At the same time, the U.S. has proposed 1% of tariff lines to be designated as sensitive products. It is hard to say in general what 1% of tariff lines means in terms of the number of tariff lines because all countries have different numbers of tariff lines. But it is clear that the U.S. proposal is a lot more stingy on special products than it is for sensitive products. To give you a sense:

- the U.S. has around 1100 tariff lines, which would entitle them to 11 tariff lines for sensitive products
- the EU has around 1000 tariff lines, which would entitle them to 10 tariff lines for sensitive products
- Brazil has around 1500 tariff lines, which would entitle them to 15 tariff lines for sensitive products

So, while it is hard to compare the U.S. proposal on SPs to the U.S. proposal on sensitive products, it does seem that the SP proposal for developing countries is more restrictive than the sensitive product proposal.