Good news for India US trade relationship, the united States has said it could consider restoring India as a beneficiary to its generalized system of preferences GPS programme. The Previous Donald Trump led administration had withdrawn India’s GSP status in Jun 2019. The GSP programme products from designated beneficiary countries.
At the twelfth ministerial level meeting of the India United States Trade Policy Forum (TPF)in News Delhi on Tuesday, India highlighted its interest in the restoration of its beneficiary status under GSP programme.US noted that this could be considered, as warranted , in relation to the eligibility criteria determined by US congress.
India is the largest beneficiary of the GSP programme in 2017 with over 5.5 billion goods going duty free.The Trump administration had accused India of not giving equitable market access to some US products like medical equipment. It had also piled pressure on India for doing away with mandatory certification on dairy products.
Union minister of commerce and industry Piyush Goyal and US trade representative ambassador Katherine Tai co- chaired the TPF meeting. According to the office of the United States Trade Representative in a joint statement by the US ,India trade policy forum, the meeting was convened with a view to advancing the goal, announced by US President Biden and Prime Minister Narendra Modi at their September 24 meeting, to ”develop an ambitious, shared vision for the future of the trade relationship.”