ISLAMABAD: The US House of Representatives has passed a bill to renew theGeneralised System of Preferences (GSP) scheme allowing duty free accessfor goods from 120 countries including Pakistan for the next three years.

The scheme expired on December 31, 2017. The Bill now provides an extensionup to December 2020.

A senior official in the commerce ministry told Dawn that this was thefirst hurdle in the renewal of the package. Now, the bill will be presentedin the US Senate for a passage.

After the passage of the bill, US president Donald Trump will sign it intoa law.

According to the official, Pakistan is one of the beneficiaries of thescheme. He was optimistic that the bill will sail smoothly through the USsenate. He said impact on trade volume is limited due to smallparticipation.

The official said the new eligibility criteria will also to be met by thebeneficiary countries.