US suspension of trade programme with India 'a done deal', says US official

Economy News

The suspension of a U.S. trade preference program with India is a "done deal," a senior State Department official said on Thursday as Prime Minister Narendra Modi began his second term.
President Donald Trump announced in March he would end India's access to the decades-old Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) trade program over what the U.S. said was lack of access to India's market. The program allows emerging countries to export goods to the United States without paying duties.U.S. law requires the administration to wait 60 days after it notifies Congress of the move before it formally ends India's participation in the program. Trump notified Congress of the move in early March.

"There is every reason to believe that GSP suspension will move forward," the official told reporters, speaking on condition of anonymity. "What is important is that the interest is to resolve trade irritants - to ensure fair and equitable market access," the official added.But the official said the benefits could be restored if India gave U.S. companies fair and equitable access to its markets.
"We need to be looking forward at how we relaunch an ambitious set of discussions between our trade teams in order to address these outstanding irritants," the official said."We believe if India is prepared to address policies, including data localization, e-commerce measures that served to stifle international investment for top-tier companies, that we can continue to make significant progress moving forward," the official added.


India is the world's largest beneficiary of GSP, which dates from the 1970s, and ending its participation would not only be the strongest punitive action against the country since Trump took office, but would also open a new front in the global trade war.Twenty-four U.S. members of Congress sent the administration a letter on May 3 urging it not to terminate India's access to the GSP.(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

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