Trump Reinstates Duty-Free Trade for Some Ukrainian Goods

U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday reinstated duty-free trade for some Ukrainian goods. Two years ago the United States suspended duty-free treatment because Ukraine was not adequately protecting intellectual property rights, Reuters reports. In a presidential proclamation, Trump said he had previously suspended duty-free treatment for certain Ukrainian goods because Ukraine was not adequately protecting intellectual property rights, but he was now lifting the suspension because the country had made progress on that front. The U.S. Trade Representative’s office said the end to the suspension affected about a third of the $36 million in trade benefits that had originally been removed for Ukraine. In a separate letter written to U.S. House of Representatives and the president of the Senate, Trump said he had suspended duty-free treatment of certain Thai products because the country had not taken steps to “afford workers in Thailand internationally recognized worker rights.” The United States was also opening reviews of its duty-free treatment for Azerbaijan over workers’ rights concerns. Separate reviews concerning goods from Bolivia, Iraq and Uzbekistan were closed without changes to their treatment, the USTR’s office said. The duty-free trade regime operates within the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) program. Newsmaker