The Donald Trump administration wants to scrap the preferential trade status granted to India and Turkey, the US trade chief’s office said Monday.
The move comes after US started imposing tariffs on goods traded with China. After several months of trade war, both nations decided to sit over the table to negotiate for a trade agreement. Last week, President Trump acknowledged that the negotiations were good so he delayed the tariffs.
The statement released by the Office of the US Trade Representative reads, “U.S intends to terminate India’s and Turkey’s designations as beneficiary developing countries under the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) program because they no longer comply with the statutory eligibility criteria.”
It added that India has failed to provide assurances that it would allow required market access, while Turkey is “sufficiently economically developed” that it no longer qualifies.
Under the GSP program certain products from certain countries can duty free if countries meet eligibility criteria including “providing the United States with equitable and reasonable market access.”
The U.S see India as a trade barrier for some of their products. This would affect goods worth US$ 5.6 billion that enter the U.S duty free.
The changes come in to effect after 60 days, following the notification from the Congress and affected countries.
Trump’s letter to the Congress reads, ““I will continue to assess whether the Government of India is providing equitable and reasonable access to its markets, in accordance with the GSP eligibility criteria.”
If the GSP is withdrawn, it would hurt the bilateral relations between US-India.
Commerce secretary Anup Wadhawan says, “Economic value of GSP benefits are very moderate. Our relations remain strong with USA and discussions will go on. Government of India has to be conscious of our developmental and public welfare interests. Our effort was to balance the affordable prices of the medical devices without compromising on public welfare. We have very deep routed ties with USA. All the issues in the trade domain are on the table for discussions. We will not compromise on affordability of medical devices.”
Updated 10:25 IST