US to end preferential trade status for India, Turkey: statement

President Donald Trump speaks to the National Association of Attorneys General, Monday, March 4, 2019, in the State Dining Room of the White House in Washington. (AP)

• The U.S. goods and services trade deficit with India was $27.3 billion in 2017, according to the U.S. Trade Representative's Office

WASHINGTON: At President Donald Trump’s direction, the United States intends to scrap the preferential trade status granted to India and Turkey, officials said Monday.
Washington “intends to terminate India’s and Turkey’s designations as beneficiary developing countries under the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) program because they no longer comply with the statutory eligibility criteria,” the US Trade Representative’s Office said in a statement.
India has failed to provide assurances that it would allow required market access, while Turkey is “sufficiently economically developed” that it no longer qualifies, USTR added.
Under the GSP program, “certain products” can enter the US duty-free if countries meet eligibility criteria including “providing the United States with equitable and reasonable market access.”
India, however, “has implemented a wide array of trade barriers that create serious negative effects on United States commerce,” the statement said.
Turkey, after being designated a GSP beneficiary in 1975, has meanwhile demonstrated a “higher level of economic development,” meaning that it can be “graduated” from the program, according to USTR.