Washington: India will lose access to preferential trade terms with the U.S. under the latter’s Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) programme, a Senior State Department official told reporters in Washington DC on Thursday.
The US, however, left the door open for restoring the benefits when India yielded, conceding more access to its markets to American firms.
India, which had been the top beneficiary of the deal under which it exported $5.6 billion to the United States in 2017, protested that it could make no counter-proposals due to laws that forbid policy-making during the election season.
A senior US official voiced hope for warm relations with PM Modi but said that the March decision would move forward.
“I think that suspension was a done deal. Now the task is how do we look ahead, how do we work under the second Modi administration to identify a path forward,” the official said on condition of anonymity.
“We believe there is enormous potential to grow our trade relationship and to help stimulate the jobs that Prime Minister Modi has committed to bringing to an overwhelmingly young Indian population,” she said.
Trump has taken a tough line on trade even with US allies and has been especially incensed at Indian tariffs on high-end manufactured goods such as motorcycles.
PM Modi is scheduled to meet President Trump in late June on the sidelines of a Group of 20 summit in Osaka.
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