US President Donald Trump is planning to end key trade preferences for India and Turkey as he delivered a notice to US Congress. Trump through his letter notified US Congress to terminate trade benefits for both countries under the generalized system of preferences.
The U.S. Trade Representative’s Office in a statement said that the notification grants a 60 day period to the US Congress before the president can take the action on his own authority. The designation provided to both countries allows duty-free entry of about 2,000 products, which includes textile products, auto components, industrial valves etc.
A few days earlier, U.S. President Donald Trump while addressing the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) states, “India is a very high-tariff nation. They charge us a lot, When we send a motorcycle to India, it’s a hundred per cent tariff. They charge 100 per cent but when India sends a motorcycle to us, we brilliantly charge them nothing. So, I want a reciprocal tax or at least, I want to charge a tax. It’s called the mirror tax, but it’s reciprocal.”
Trump in his notification letter said that India “has not assured the United States that it will provide equitable and reasonable access to the markets of India.” He also, in a separate letter, said that Turkey is no longer a “developing country based on its level of economic development.”
According to a Congressional Research Service report issued in January the duty-free status granted to India has been highly beneficial to the country, as due to the program in 2017, India’s export to the U.S. stood at US$ 5.7 billion.
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