Society of American Florists’ wholesaler and importer members met with congressional offices Nov. 19 to push for renewal of the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP), a trade program that allows for duty-free rose imports from Ecuador and could save the floral industry an estimated $20 million a year. The group also pushed for retroactive refunds for all duties paid during the program’s four-year lapse.
The GSP provides pricing stability and savings that could be used to grow U.S. floral business. SAF led a successful industry effort to get roses added to the program in November 2020, which eliminated a 6.8% tariff on Ecuadorian roses. The program expired the next month and SAF has been pushing for its renewal since.
Last week’s congressional “fly-in” was the latest effort, when five wholesalers and an importer met with 11 congressional offices that have the most influence over the GSP to push for the renewal.
“We were able to talk, and in this minutia of all the craziness that’s going on we were front and center,” says Liza Roeser, AAF, founder of Fifty Flowers. “We are talking about our rose duties and trying to get them not only cleared and taken away, but also retroactively given back, so that our small businesses in the floral industry can thrive.”
Roeser says if the cost of the duty is alleviated, she and others in the industry could use it to sell more product and create more jobs in the U.S.
Oscar Fernandez, director of sales at Rio Roses/Equiflor and SAF’s president, expressed urgency in his meetings with lawmakers, pointing out that the GSP has lapsed 11 times, but never for as long as this four-year lapse.
“This is money that should be staying in the industry and in your congressional district,” Fernandez said to an aide in the office of Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart.
The meetings were well received and all of the legislators or legislative aides they spoke with supported renewing the GSP, says SAF Senior Lobbyist Joe Bischoff, Ph.D.
In a related effort, SAF, along with 34 other organizations from a variety of industries, recently signed a letter to Congressional leaders urging them to prioritize reauthorizing the GSP before the end of the year. The letter emphasizes the importance of GSP for supporting emerging economies and reducing costs for American businesses and consumers, and it notes the detrimental effects of the program’s expiration on supply chain resilience and cost of goods.
If a trade package including the renewal does not happen in the lame duck Congress, Bischoff says, it may have a chance in the incoming Congress, which is likely to pursue programs that benefit small business.
If there is no action on the renewal, SAF will continue pushing for it in 2025, including at SAF’s Congressional Action Days on March 17 and 18.
“Everyone understands the effects it’s having on all our businesses,” says Fernandez. “We hope that will be here in March for Congressional Action Days, because we need more people on the Hill pushing for all of our agenda items that we need to improve our industry.”
Roxy Ekberg is a contributing writer for the Society of American Florists.