Face of Nation : United States Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross on Thursday told Reuters that the US does not believe that India is eligible for the grant of a special trade privilege but is renegotiating its terms after revoking the status earlier this year.
Earlier this year, the United States stripped India from the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) programme citing a lack of reciprocal market access. The GSP allowed duty-free entry for up to $5.6 billion worth of its annual exports to America. In response, India hiked retaliatory tariffs on 28 US products, including almonds, apples, and walnuts.
“If we can solve GSP, that’s a very good step towards free trade,” Mr. Ross told Reuters in an interview on the sidelines of the India Economic Summit in New Delhi. “We are hopeful that those gaps can be closed and we can get a more favourable trade arrangement with India. GSP (reinstatement) could be called a limited trade deal.”
US Secretary is expected to meet his Indian counterpart Piyush Goyal on Thursday. The two nations have been engaged in trade disputes for months. United States is concerned about Indian policies that mandate foreign firms to store more data locally, restrict the way US e-commerce giants operate in the country and impose price caps on medical devices.
E-commerce giant Amazon.com Inc and Walmart’s Flipkart were thrust after India’s new investment rules were implemented in February. The new rules forced the business giants to change their business structures to continue to operate in the country. The new rules had made expansion in the country slower for both the US e-commerce giants, Mr. Ross said. “All that we are looking for is to level the playing field India is certainly one of the most protectionist,” Mr. Ross said.
