Washington: The US on Thursday revoked duty-free concessions on import of at least 50 Indian products, mostly from handloom and agriculture sectors, reflecting the Trump administration’s tough stand on trade-related issues with New Delhi.
The federal register issued a notification, listing out 90 products, which were so far subject to duty-free provisions under the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP).
President Donald Trump issued a presidential proclamation on Tuesday, leading to the removal of these products from the privilege beginning 1 November.
As of 1 November, these products “will no longer qualify for duty-free preferences under the GSP programme but may continue to be imported subject to regular Most Favored Nation duty-rates,” an official of the US Trade Representative said.
A review of the products indicates that the presidential proclamation is not country specific, but product specific. With India being the largest beneficiary of the GSP, it has been hit the most by the latest decision of the Trump administration.
The GSP, the largest and oldest US trade preference programme, is designed to promote economic development by allowing duty-free entry for thousands of products from designated countries. A count of these products indicated that at least 50 of them were from India. In 2017, India’s duty-free export to the US under the GSP was to the tune of more than $5.6 billion.
In his presidential proclamation, Trump said that certain waivers will no longer be granted for any product, regardless of the source country, which exceeds the GSP’s Competitive Need Limitation (CNL) thresholds. The CNL thresholds are quantitative ceilings on GSP benefits for each product and designated beneficiary country.
Products from other countries such as Argentina, Brazil, Thailand, Suriname, Pakistan, Turkey, the Philippines, Ecuador and Indonesia, were also removed from the GSP list.
Some of the prominent Indian products removed from the duty-free provisions of the GSP include dried pigeon pea seed; areca nuts, fresh or dried, in shell; turpentine gum; mangoes, prepared or preserved by vinegar or acetic acid; sandstone, merely cut into blocks or slabs of a rectangular (including square) shape; tin chlorides; barium chlorides; salts and esters of tartaric acid, nesoi; and trimethyl phosphite.
Full grain unsplit or grain split buffalo hide or skin; grain split whole buffalo leather, without hair on; whole buffalo skin leather (not full grain unsplits/grain splits); and full grain unsplit buffalo leather (not whole), were also removed from the list.
Dyed, plain weave certified hand-loomed fabrics of cotton, containing 85% or more cotton by weight; plain weave certified hand-loomed fabrics of cotton, containing 85% or more cotton by weight, hand-loomed carpet and other textile floor coverings, woven, made up of man-made textile materials were also removed.
Base metal clad with gold mixed link necklaces and neck chains and keyboard musical instruments such as harmoniums and similar keyboard instruments with free metal reeds were among the other products.
These products can still be exported to the US from India but they will be subject to regular tariffs.
In April, the US announced eligibility review of India for the GSP. According to the USTR, the total US imports under GSP in 2017 was $21.2 billion, of which India was the biggest beneficiary with $5.6 billion, followed by Thailand ($4.2 billion) and Brazil ($2.5 billion).
The programme has been renewed through 31 December 2020.
This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text. Only the headline has been changed.