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The federal register issued a notification, listing out 90 products which were so far subject to duty-free provisions under the Generalised System of Preferences (GSP).
As of November 1, these products “will no longer qualify for duty-free preferences under the GSP programme but may continue to be imported subject to regular Most Favored Nation duty-rates,” an official of US Trade Representative said.
US President Donald Trump issued a Presidential proclamation on Tuesday, leading to the removal of these products from the privilege beginning November 1.
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The GSP, the largest and oldest US trade preference programme, is designed to promote economic development by allowing duty-free entry for thousands of products from designated beneficiary countries.
A count of these products indicated that at least 50 of them are from India. Notably India is the largest beneficiary of the GSP. In 2017, India’s duty-free export to the US under the GSP was to the tune of more than $5.6 billion.
The volume of India’s export to the US impacted by the latest move of the Trump administration is not known yet, but the list of products from which duty-free import provision has been removed reflects that a large number of small and medium-size business could be impacted, in particular, handloom and agricultural sector.
Some of the prominent Indian products removed from the duty-free provisions of the GSP include dried pigeon pea seed; areca nuts, fresh or dried, in shell; turpentine gum; mangoes, prepared or preserved by vinegar or acetic acid; sandstone, merely cut into blocks or slabs of a rectangular shape; tin chlorides; barium chlorides; salts and esters of tartaric acid, nesoi; and trimethyl phosphite. These products can still be exported to the US but will be subject to regular tariffs.