The United States is revoking its trade benefits on gold jewellery imports from India and Thailand following an annual review of the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP), a program that provides duty-free entry to nearly 5,000 products from 131 developing countries.%%The government determined that 21 products from beneficiary countries, valued at approximately $4.8 billion last year, can compete effectively in the US market and will no longer be eligible for duty-free treatment under the GSP program. Gold jewellery imports from India and Thailand were part of that list and will now be subject to US import duties.%%The GSP program includes two “competitive need limitations” on the eligibility of a product: (i) if the annual trade of a product from a specific country exceeds a value-based threshold ($125 million in 2006), or (ii) if the annual trade of a product from a specific country exceeds 50 per cent of total U.S. imports of that product.%%Last year, India’s gold jewellery exports to the US under the GSP totalled $2.21 billion, while Thailand shipped gold jewellery worth $700.36 million, representing 33.2 per cent and 10.5 per cent, respectively, of total US gold jewellery imports in the same period, states the U.S. Trade Representative's office.%%In 2006, the US extended duty-free treatment under the GSP program to imports worth $32.6 billion from eligible beneficiary countries, an increase of 22 per cent over 2005.