The Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) and similar preferential tariff schemes reduce or eliminate duty on imports from developing economies, intended to support their export growth. China's eligibility under these schemes has shifted over time as its classification in various trading partners' frameworks has changed — the US removed China from its GSP beneficiary list some years ago, for instance, and other markets have made their own adjustments.
This matters directly for landed-cost planning: a product that once cleared at a preferential or zero duty rate under an older trade arrangement may now be subject to standard, or in some cases elevated, duty rates, and an importer working from historical cost assumptions can be caught out by a rate that changed without their noticing.
Separately from GSP, product-specific or origin-specific trade remedy measures (anti-dumping, countervailing duties, Section 301-style tariffs) can apply on top of the standard rate for specific HS codes of Chinese origin, layered independently of whatever general preference scheme status applies.
The practical check for any China-sourced product is confirming the current applicable duty rate — standard, preferential if any still applies, plus any trade remedy measure — against the destination market's current tariff schedule rather than a rate used on a previous shipment, since these rates are genuinely live policy areas that move.