Importers of those goods from affected countries must now pay duties at the normal tariff rates on those items, according to a message received here Sunday from the Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR).

The decision followed the outcome of annual review of GSP 2005 that created in 1974 to give 136 eligible developing countries duty-free access for 5,000 different products to the United States.

In 2005, $26.7 billion in products were imported duty-free from eligible beneficiary countries under the GSP programme, an 18 percent increase over 2004, with a significant exception to textile and apparel products.

Under the GSP statute, if US imports of a certain product from a specific country exceeded $120 million in 2005, or if imports of a certain product from a specific country were more than 50 percent of total imports of that product from all countries, imports of that product from that country lose their eligibility under the GSP programme.

The Bush Administration reviewed petitions to remove certain countries from the GSP programme for not meeting several statutory criteria that include measures to afford internationally recognised workers' rights, adequately protecting intellectual property rights and other anti-US interests for GSP eligibility.

Earlier this year, the Bush Administration restored GSP eligibility to Liberia as a least developed GSP beneficiary developing country and closed reviews of certain country practice petitions without removing GSP eligibility.

These cases examined workers' rights in Swaziland and intellectual property rights enforcement in Pakistan, Kazakhstan, and Brazil. The following petitions remain under review: Uganda (worker rights); Lebanon and Uzbekistan (protection of intellectual property rights); and Bulgaria and Romania (preferential tariff treatment).

The administration also extended or preserved benefits by continuing GSP benefits that would otherwise expire and restore benefits on some goods.