'Unfortunate,' Says India After US Withdraws Trade Concessions Worth $5.6bn

A day after United States President Donald Trump withdrew trade concessions worth $5.6 billion under the Generalised Scheme of Preferences programme (GPP), India on Saturday said the move was "unfortunate", adding it had offered a resolution, which the global superpower rejected.

In a statement, the commerce ministry also said that it was anticipating this decision which will come into effect on June 5, 2019.

India also said that like the US and any other nation will uphold its national interest.

“In any relationship, particularly in the area of economic ties, there are issues which get resolved mutually from time to time. We view this issue as a part of a regular process and will continue to build on our strong ties with the US, both economic and people to people,” the statement said.

Trump, on Friday night, said that India had not assured the United States that it will provide equitable and reasonable access to its markets."

"Accordingly", he said, "it is appropriate to terminate India's designation as a beneficiary developing country effective June 5, 2019."

The end to GSP comes ahead of the meeting between Trump and Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Japan later this month during the G20 Summit. Trade issues are likely to come up during their meeting.

Trump is on a mission to end the massive US trade deficits and has imposed or proposed higher tariffs on imports from several countries while involved in a trade war with China.

On Wednesday, he announced punitive tariff hikes on imports from Mexico over its leniency towards immigrants from Central America.

Turkey was also stripped of its GSP trade concessions along with India on Friday.

India, which came under the GSP programme in 1975, is its largest beneficiary in the US. However, India's GSP exports of $5.6 billion were only a small part of the total exports worth $76.7 billion in 2017, according to the US Trade Representative (USTR).

(With inputs from agencies).