At the India-US Trade Policy Forum meeting, Piyush Goyal Union Minister of Commerce and Industry, urged Ambassador Katherine Tai, US Trade Representative to restore its Generalised System of Preferences (GSP) status that was scrapped by the former Donald Trump administration in 2019.
The largest beneficiary of GSP status, India exports goods worth $5.7 billion duty-free to the US in the year 2017. Of these, 1,900 products belonged to the engineering chemicals and textiles sector, noted Goyal.
The bilateral and technological partnership also benefits from the movement of professional and skilled workers, students, investors and business visitors between the two countries, he added.
Highlighting challenges being faced by business visitors from India due to visa proessing time periods, he requested Tai to augment this processing.
The two delegates also identified future areas for enhanced cooperation between the two countries including critical minerals, customs and trade facilitation, supply chains, and trade in high tech products.
