25 US lawmakers urge Trump admin not to cancel GSP trade benefits to India

International News

A group of 25 influential American lawmakers has urged the US Trade Representative not to terminate the GSP programme with India after the expiry of the 60-day notice on Friday, saying the country's companies seeking to expand their exports to India could be affected.

The Generalized System of Preference (GSP) is the largest and oldest US trade preference programme and is designed to promote economic development by a
llowing duty-free entry for thousands of products from designated beneficiary countries.
On March 4, President Donald Trump announced that the US intends to terminate India's designations as a beneficiary developing country under the GSP programme.The 60-day notice period ends on May 3.

On the eve of the end of the notice period, the 25 US lawmakers made a last-ditch effort to convince the Trump administration from going ahead with its decision.

The 25 members of the US House of Representatives in a passionate letter urged US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer to continue negotiating a deal that protects and promotes jobs that rely on trade both imports and exports with India.They argued that terminating GSP for India would hurt American companies seeking to expand their exports to India.


 "India's termination from GSP follows its failure to provide the United States with assurances that it will provide equitable and reasonable access to its markets in numerous sectors," Trump had said in a letter to Congress, providing a notice of his intent to terminate the designation of India as a beneficiary developing country under GSP programme.In his letter, Trump said that he was determined that New Delhi had "not assured" the US that it would "provide equitable and reasonable access" to the markets of India...Read More

US-China talks to resolve trade war will resume in Washington today

International News:

A new round of talks between the United States and China to resolve their trade war will take place in Washington, with follow-up sessions at a higher level later in the week, the White House said .
The talks follow a round of negotiations that ended in Beijing last week without a deal but which officials said had generated progress on contentious issues between the world's two largest economies.

The talks are aimed at "achieving needed structural changes in China that affect trade between the United States and China.

The two sides will also discuss China's pledge to purchase a substantial amount of goods and services from the United States," the White House said in a statement.

The higher-level talks will start and be led by US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, a strong proponent of pressing China to end practices that the United States says include forced technology transfers from US companies and intellectual property theft.

China, which denies that it engages in such practices, confirmed that Vice Premier Liu He will visit Washington on Thursday and Friday for the talks.

The White House said Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, economic adviser Larry Kudlow and trade adviser Peter Navarro would also take part in the talks.

 US tariffs on $200 billion in imports from China are set to rise to 25 percent from 10 percent if no deal is reached by March 1...Read More