Summary: Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO evaluated the impact of granting Bulgaria a most-favored-nation trade status, focusing on: (1) tariff rates on U.S. imports from Bulgaria compared to rates from other countries; and (2) leading U.S. exports to and imports from Bulgaria from 1987 to 1990.
GAO found that: (1) the weighted average tariff rate on dutiable products could decline from 21 percent to 5.2 percent if the United States granted Bulgaria most-favored-nation status; (2) an increase in U.S. imports from Bulgaria would have only a small impact on total U.S. imports, since Bulgarian exports to all countries amounted to only 3.5 percent of total U.S. imports; (3) between 1987 and 1989, U.S. exports to Bulgaria averaged $132 million annually, with maize, oilseeds, wheat, copper, and barley being the leading exports; (4) due to a deep recession in Bulgaria and a severe shortage of hard currency, the United States only exported $55 million in goods to Bulgaria in the first 11 months of 1990; (5) tobacco, fertilizers, oil products, cheese, and alcoholic beverages were the leading imports from Bulgaria to the United States, averaging $45 million annually between 1987 and 1989; (6) the United States imported $41 million in Bulgarian goods in the first 11 months of 1990, a 23 percent decline from the same period in 1989; and (7) the decline in Bulgarian exports to the U.S. was mainly due to the reduction in oil product exports.
