The commerce ministry has issued a statement over the designation of India as a beneficiary developing country being terminated by the United States (US) on Saturday. India had offered resolution on significant US requests to find a mutually acceptable way forward. Unfortunate that this didn’t find acceptance by the US, said in the statement.
The US on Friday announced
its decision to end preferential tariffs to $5.6 billion of Indian exports from
June 5 after determining that it has not assured the US that it will provide
“equitable and reasonable access to its markets.”
“In any relationship, particularly in the area of
economic ties, there are issues which get resolved mutually time to time. We
view this issue as a part of the regular process & will continue to build
on our strong ties with the US, both economic and people to people,” the Commerce Ministry statement added.
The US has announced the
withdrawal of special duty benefits under the Generalized System of Preferences
(GSP) on March 5 And were to come into force from the first week of May.
However, Washington decided to postpone the implementation of its decision
until May 23, when India gets a new government.
It is worth mentioning here that the Generalized System of Preference (GSP) is the largest US trade preference programme. It is designed with an aim to promote economic development by allowing duty-free entry for thousands of products from designated beneficiary countries. In the year 2017, India was the largest beneficiary of this programme with 5.7 billion dollar in imports to the US given duty-free status, according to a Congressional Research Service report issued in January.
The statement further added that “The USA has w.e.f. June 5, 2019, withdrawn India’s GSP benefits. These are unilateral, non-reciprocal and non-discriminatory benefits extended by some-developed countries. India as part of our bilateral trade discussions, had offered resolution on significant US requests in an effort to find a mutually acceptable way forward. It is unfortunate that this did not find acceptance by the US.”
The press release also mentioned, “India, like the US and other nations shall always uphold its national interest in these matters. We have significant development imperatives and concerns and our people also aspire for better standards of living. This will remain the guiding factor in the government’s approach.”
It said that it is hoped that the two nations will continue to work together intensively for further growing these ties in a mutually beneficial manner.