The United States will suspend on June 5 the favorable commercial treatment enjoyed by India. This punitive measure aims to rebalance trade between the two countries.
After China, Canada, Mexico … Donald Trump is attacking India. The US president announced in a statement on Friday night that the United States will suspend on June 5 the trade treatment enjoyed by India, a move to rebalance trade between the two countries. The president, who has regularly denounced high tariffs that India imposes on US products, announced last March its intention to withdraw New Delhi’s access to the commercialized program Generalized System of Preference (GSP). Donald Trump has again complained Friday of insufficient access to the Indian market of 1.3 billion people for US exports.
By putting an end to the trade benefits on imports from India starting Wednesday, Donald Trump is setting a new economic blow for his ally, Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The GSP program has allowed India to export $ 5.7 billion worth of duty-free goods in 2017, according to figures from the US Congress. The US trade deficit with India was $ 26.7 billion in fiscal 2017-2018. The Indian government did not respond immediately to the US initiative.
According to press reports, New Delhi plans to increase tariffs on more than 20 US import products including agricultural and chemical goods. Donald Trump’s announcement comes on top of the bad economic news that marks the start of the second five-year term of Hindu nationalist Prime Minister Narendra Modi. According to official figures released on Friday, Indian growth slowed sharply in January-March, the last quarter of fiscal year 2018-2019, to 5.8% year-on-year, and the unemployment rate was 6.1% in 2017-2018, the highest in 45 years according to the Indian press.
