‘Scrapping India’s trade privileges could hit American consumers’: US senators
Hindustan TimesA US plan to end preferential duty-free imports of up to $5.6 billion from India could raise costs for American consumers, two US senators have told their country’s trade office, urging a delay in adopting the plan, and seeking more negotiations. If US President Donald Trump presses ahead with his plan to end the Generalized System of Preferences for India, it could lose the status in early May, Indian officials have said, raising the prospect of retaliatory tariffs. India is the world’s largest beneficiary of the GSP, dating from the 1970s, but trade ties with the US have widened over what Trump calls its high tariffs and concerns over New Delhi’s e-commerce policies. Last June, India said it would step up import duties varying from 20 percent to 120 percent on a slew of U.S. farm, steel and iron products, angered by Washington’s refusal to exempt it from new steel and aluminium tariffs.