Duty-free concessions of at least 50 Indian products, mostly from agriculture and handloom sectors, were revoked on Thursday be the Trump administration, reflecting Washington's tought 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 November 1.
As of November 1, 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 US Trade Representative told PTI.
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 beneficiary countries.
A count of these products indicated that at least 50 of them are from India. Notably India is the largest beneficiary of the GSP. In 2017, India's duty-free export to the US under the GSP was to the tune of more than USD 5.6 billion.
The volume of India's export to the US impacted by the latest move of the Trump administration is not known yet, but the list of products from which duty-free import provision has been removed reflects that a large number of small and medium size business could be impacted, in particular handloom and agricultural sector.
In his presidential proclamation, Trump said that certain 'de minimis' waivers will no longer be granted for any product, regardless of the country source, that 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.
PTI
