Working with US to address trade issues: Prabhu

Press Trust of India  |  New Delhi 

The government today said it is working with the US to resolve all trade issues even as has decided to review India's eligibility to enjoy duty-free access for certain products under a benefit scheme.

Besides, it has dragged to WTO's dispute settlement mechanism challenging Indian export incentive schemes.

said the US is India's important trading partner and the latter has a large trade surplus with it.

"We have special relation with the US, which is multi-faceted, multi dimensional and also very strategic. We are working with the US to address the trade issues," he told reporters here.

He said that over four million Indians are living in the US and it is one of the major markets for goods and services exports.

"In a situation like this, the US has taken certain unilateral actions. So we will follow the rules of WTO (World Trade Organisation) as well as we will talk to them. We are completely in the control of situation," he added.

Prabhu said that the (USTR) was here last week and "we are in touch with the US at all levels".

On the issue of imposing high duties on and aluminium by the US, he said India's exports of these two commodities to is not significant.

"I can assure you one thing that the only guiding principle for engagement with the US is to protect India's commercial interest in its entirety," he added.

As many as 3,500 Indian products from sectors such as chemicals, medical devices and engineering get duty free access to the US market under the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP), introduced in 1976.

The review can impact exports of those 3,500 Indian products to the US market as removal of duty benefits would make those items uncompetitive.

According to the USTR, the total US imports under GSP in 2017 was USD 21.2 billion, of which was the biggest beneficiary with USD 5.6 billion, followed by (USD4.2 billion) and (USD 2.5 billion).

The bilateral trade between the countries has increased to USD 64.52 billion in 2016-17 from USD 62.11 billion in the previous fiscal.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

First Published: Tue, April 17 2018. 13:40 IST